Description
In Canvas, roles and permissions govern access to features within courses and accounts. This article provides an overview of the different roles available in Canvas courses at Ohio University. It explains the permissions associated with each role, including Teacher, TA, Designer, and Student, to help OHIO students and employees understand their access and capabilities within the Canvas learning management system.
Environment
Canvas in your web browser
Overview: Roles and Permissions
The roles in Canvas determine the level of access and capabilities each person has within a course. The following tables outline the roles and their descriptions, followed by the permissions associated with each role.
Course Roles
Course roles apply only to the course for which the role is assigned. For example, the same person may be a student in a training course and an instructor in another course. Another way to think of this is that roles are applied on a course-by-course basis. Course roles can be granted in two ways: automatically by our student information system, PeopleSoft, or manually.
If our student information system has you listed as being the instructor of record for a course or being enrolled in the course as a student, then the corresponding role in that course will be automatically provided when courses, instructors, and students load to Canvas.
- Course and Instructor Enrollment Timing: Eight weeks before the course's start date, the courses and any known instructors of record are automatically enrolled in their Canvas courses.
- Student Enrollment Timing: Two weeks before the course's start date, students are automatically enrolled in their courses.
Manually adding users to courses can be done two ways, through self-enrollment or by using the rostering tool, called People, in Canvas. If you have a manually created course, such as a training course or an orientation course, you can have that course set up to allow students to enroll themselves in the course. This only works for manually created courses, academic courses cannot allow self-enrollment. For more information, please visit this support article: Enabling Self Enrollment in your Canvas Course. For instructions on adding users to your course using the People tool in Canvas, please visit this support article: Adding and Removing TAs, Instructors and Other Users in a Canvas Course.
For additional information about course roles in Canvas, please visit this support article: Roles in Canvas.
| Role |
Description |
| Teacher |
For instructors and assistants that need full access to the Canvas features for instruction. |
| Teaching Assistant (TA) |
For teaching assistants. Allows full access to grading, and limited access to content and user management. |
| Designer |
For instructional designers (and those with similar roles) who create and manage course content, but do not actually teach or grade student work. |
| Student |
Can access and interact with course content that has been specifically made available to them by the Teacher, TA and Designer roles. |
Permissions by Role
| Role |
Permissions |
| Teacher |
All available permissions. |
| Teaching Assistant (TA) |
Same permissions as Teachers except: Cannot publish or reset the course, cannot add/remove TAs/Instructors/Designers, cannot merge/cross-list courses, and cannot manage outcomes. |
| Designer |
Same content creation permissions as the Teacher, can publish and reset the course. Cannot manage users, view or edit grades, and cannot merge/cross-list courses. |
Account Roles
Canvas has a hierarchical structure that is similar to an organization chart or a series of nested folders. Canvas calls these Accounts and Sub Accounts. So, our Account is Ohio University. The Sub Accounts are the Colleges. And the Sub-Sub Accounts are the Departments. Courses can be found in the department level folders. Here is an example:
- Ohio University
- College of Arts & Sciences
Account roles can be applied at the Account (University), Sub Account (College) or Sub-Sub Account (Department) level. Below is a table explaining the options available at the College or Department level.
| Role |
Access Level |
Role Purpose |
Who can request |
| Sub Account Admin |
College or Department |
The Sub Account Admin role is for college or department staff that need full access to the college or department folders to support their students and instructors. This role may also be granted to college or department staff that need elevated access for accreditation needs. |
Requests for college access needs to be from a Dean, Associate Dean, or Assistant Dean.
Requests for department access needs to come from the Department Chair or equivalent.
|
| Sub Account Outcomes Admin |
College or Department |
The Sub Account Outcomes Admin role was created for the colleges and departments that are interested in piloting Outcomes and Rubrics. |
Requests for college access needs to be from a Dean, Associate Dean, or Assistant Dean.
Requests for department access needs to come from the Department Chair or equivalent.
|
If you would like to learn more about the Sub Account admin role, this recorded training session is a good resource. If you would like to learn more about Outcomes and Rubrics, please view this recorded training session.
Get help from Canvas
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Dial the Canvas Support Hotline number located under "Get Help" in the Canvas Global Navigation Menu
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Contact OIT at 740‑593‑1222 if you need help logging in, accessing test or practice courses, or using tools that connect to Canvas.
Get help from OIT
Additional resources