What roles can users have?
The following are available roles that may be utilized within a Canvas site on the Duke & DKU Canvas platform. Users at the Teacher role of a Canvas site are responsible for ensuring that any users manually added to a Canvas site are enrolled at the proper role to accomplish their responsibilities and adhere to all university policies (security, privacy, etc.)
Teacher
Description
Teachers may create course materials, view course data, and access and manage all areas of a Canvas site.
Designed use-case
For users who are teaching the course and require permission to access all parts of the course
Additional information
- All instructors of record listed in DukeHub / DKUHub for a course are automatically added at the teacher role in the corresponding Canvas site.
- https://community.canvaslms.com/t5/Canvas-Basics-Guide/What-is-the-Teacher-role/ta-p/86
TA
Description
Teacher assistants can create course materials, access and manage Canvas course materials, and engage with others enrolled in the course.
Designed use-case
For graduate students who are assisting, leading and/or supporting a course in collaboration with a faculty member.
Additional information
Designer
Description
Designers can create course materials and build course content in most tools.
Designed use-case
A course coordinator or support member assisting the teacher in adding content to the course but does not / should not have access to grade information.
Additional information
Non-grading assistant
Description
The non-grading assistant role is designed for users who are assisting a teacher to build and design a Canvas site but should not be able to view grades.
Designed use-case
Undergraduate teacher assistants, according to Trinity School policy, should not have access to view and/or enter grades for other undergraduate students. As such it is recommended that teachers add these undergraduate TAs to the non-grading assistant role within Canvas site(s).
Additional information
Since the non-grading assistant role is intended to restrict the visibility of grades, some external tools that utilize grading functionality may not work as desired or anticipated. Users of third-party tools should verify their non-grading assistant roles and permissions after any updates or synchronization actions on the respective platforms.
Gradescope
When Gradescope resyncs to Canvas, the role assigned in Gradescope changes to mirror the role in Canvas. If a user has grading privileges in Gradescope only, that is overwritten by their non-grading assistant Canvas permissions when Gradescope resyncs. There is not an identical role in Gradescope for the Canvas non-grading assistant so their role in Gradescope defaults to Student. When this occurs, the instructor will need to change their role from Student to TA in the Gradescope Roster.
Student
Description
Students can consume course content and submit to assignments, quizzes & other activities.
Designed use-case
In academic course sites, this is designed for officially enrolled students to complete course materials as required to receive course credit.
In non-academic sites (ex: Collaboration sites), the Student role should be utilized for users who should not be able to edit course content and are primarily in the site to be ‘learners’.
Additional information
- All officially enrolled students in DukeHub / DKUHub for a course are automatically added at the Student role in the corresponding Canvas site.
- https://community.canvaslms.com/t5/Canvas-Basics-Guide/What-is-the-Student-role/ta-p/71
Observer
Description
The Observer role is primarily meant to be used in the K-12 environment. It is not recommended to be used for Duke or DKU sites.
Designed use-case
None
Additional information
From the Instructor Guide
See the Canvas Instructor Guide's section on People for more information.