Canvas provides course-level user roles, e.g., Student, Teacher, TA, etc., that each include their own set of default permissions. At Miami University, there are seven available roles.
Please keep FERPA guidelines in mind if you are manually adding anyone to your course; there should always be a valid reason for adding someone to a course. Never enroll for-credit students in a course – all students are automatically added to Canvas courses through Banner as the student registers for classes.
- Student: Student permissions are restricted, but they have enough permissions to access and interact with course materials.
- Teacher: The teacher role grants you curse admin permissions, giving you control over your assigned course or courses.
- Teaching Assistant (TA): These users have permissions similar to teachers, except that TAs should not have access to SIS data. The TA role is meant to support the teacher role. At Miami, TAs are permitted to grade student submissions.
- Undergraduate Assistant (UA): This role is for undergraduate students that are mentoring other students or assisting faculty. This role cannot access or enter grades.
- Grader: If you have a staff member who has been assigned to assist you with grading, you can assign them to the grader role.
- Designer: These users are permitted to access and create course content, including announcements, assignments, discussions, and quizzes. Designers cannot access grades.
- Observer: Observers have the fewest permissions. You can use this role to share content with others in situations where you don’t want the user to have edit privileges.
Here’s a detailed breakdown of each role and its permissions.
Student
Students can:
Create
- Discussions (teacher role can restrict under Course Details under Settings)
- Collaborations with other students (teacher can hide using Navigation under Settings)
Instructors can restrict discussions to remain within a specific course section on the course’s Settings page under the Course Details tab. You can also hide collaborations with other students under the Navigations tab.
Post
- Discussion replies
Send
- Conversations (inbox/email)
Submit
- Assignments (as determined within individual assignments)
- Quiz answers
View
- Announcements
- Discussions
- User list (if People is activated in the navigation and always in conversations/inbox emails)
Teachers
Teachers can:
Create/Add/Edit/Delete
- Course Content
- Pages
- Assignments
- Quizzes
- Discussions
- Modules
- Media (Kaltura)
- Calendar (due dates are set in the assignments/quizzes/discussions)
- Events
- Collaborations
- Files (1G maximum storage per course)
- Groups
- People for group work activities
- Assignment groups for weighted grading
- Publish (make visible to students)
- Course
- Modules
- Pages
- Discussions
- Assignments
- Quizzes
- Menu Navigation
- Rubrics/Outcomes
- Question Banks for Quizzes
- Users
- TA, UA, Grader, Designer, Observer, Student
Grades/Gradebook Settings
- Enter grades
- Change grades
- Set grade posting rules at the course and individual assignment
- Select final grade for moderated assignments (TA or other teacher roles enter grades but grades are not posted until the moderator approves)
- Download gradebook
- Import grades
Moderate
- Add discussions on the Discussions page
- Close for comments, move, pin/unpin, edit, and delete discussion topics in Discussions
- Edit discussion topics
- View all replies within a discussion topic
Post
- Post discussion replies
Send
- Conversations (email/inbox)
- Entire class
- Individual course members
View
- Analytics
- Announcements
- Discussions
- Users list
- Usage reports
Teaching Assistants (TAs)
The teaching assistant (TA) role is for graduate teaching assistants only. TAs can can:
Create/Add/Edit/Delete
- Course Content
- Pages
- Assignments
- Quizzes
- Discussions
- Modules
- Media (Kaltura)
- Calendar (due dates are set in the assignments/quizzes/discussions)
- Events
- Collaborations
- Files (1G maximum storage per course)
- Groups
- People for group work activities
- Assignment groups for weighted grading
- Publish (make visible to students)
- Course
- Modules
- Pages
- Discussions
- Assignments
- Quizzes
- Menu Navigation
- Rubrics/Outcomes
- Question Banks for Quizzes
- Users
- Observer, Student
Grades/Gradebook Settings
- Enter grades
- Change grades
- Set grade posting rules at the course and individual assignment
- Select final grade for moderated assignments (TA or other teacher roles enter grades but grades are not posted until the moderator approves)
- Download gradebook
- Import grades
Moderate
- Add discussions on the Discussions page
- Close for comments, move, pin/unpin, edit, and delete discussion topics in Discussions
- Edit discussion topics
- View all replies within a discussion topic
Post
- Post discussion replies
Send
- Conversations (email/inbox)
- Entire class
- Individual course members
View
- Analytics
- Announcements
- Discussions
- Users list
- Usage reports
Undergraduate Associate (UA)
Create
- Discussions
- Collaborations with other students
Moderate
- Add discussions on the Discussions page
- Close for comments, move, pin/unpin, edit, and delete discussion topics in Discussions
- Edit discussion topics
- View all replies within a discussion topic
Post
- Post discussion replies
Send
- Conversations (email/inbox)
- Entire class
- Individual course members
Submit
This role does not grade, however, UAs are listed in the gradebook like all other students, so this role can submit their own work.
- Assignments (as determined within individual assignments)
- Quiz answers
View
- Announcements
- Discussions
- User list (if People is activated in the navigation and always in conversations/inbox emails)
Grader
Graders can:
Create/Add/Edit/Delete
- Course Content
- Pages
- Assignments
- Quizzes
- Discussions
- Modules
- Media (Kaltura)
- Collaborations
- Files (1G maximum storage per course)
- Groups
- People for group work activities
- Assignment groups for weighted grading
- Publish (make visible to students)
- Course
- Modules
- Pages
- Discussions
- Assignments
- Quizzes
- Menu Navigation
- Rubrics/Outcomes
- Question Banks for Quizzes
- Users
- TA (GAs only), UA, Grader, Designer, Observer, Student
Grades/Gradebook Settings
- Enter grades
- Change grades
Moderate
- Add discussions on the Discussions page
- Close for comments, move, pin/unpin, edit, and delete discussion topics in Discussions
- Edit discussion topics
- View all replies within a discussion topic
Post
- Post discussion replies
Send
- Conversations (email/inbox)
- Entire class
- Individual course members
View
- Analytics
- Announcements
- Discussions
- Users list
- Usage reports
Designer
Designers can:
Create/Add/Edit/Delete
- Course Content
- Pages
- Assignments
- Quizzes
- Discussions
- Modules
- Media (Kaltura)
- Calendar (due dates are set in the assignments/quizzes/discussions)
- Events
- Collaborations
- Files (1G maximum storage per course)
- Groups
- People for group work activities
- Assignment groups for weighted grading
- Publish (make visible to students)
- Course
- Modules
- Pages
- Discussions
- Assignments
- Quizzes
- Menu Navigation
- Rubrics/Outcomes
- Question Banks for Quizzes
- Users
- Observer, Student
Observer
View Only Role
- Cannot create/edit/delete any content
- Can view only published courses and published content
- Can view announcments
- Assignment detail but no students submissions
- Page detail
