Add and Manage Users

Add Users (TAs, Visiting Instructors, Designers and Tutors) to your course

Important: Users that require access to student data in a specific course section

BEFORE you add a user who requires access to student data in a course section, ensure that your course is linked with its Registrar sections (see the Prepare to Teach guide). Then, add the user (TAs, Visiting Instructors, Designers, and Tutors) directly to the registrar section in ISU Admin Tools using the section drop-down menu. This access can ONLY occur AFTER the Registrar section has been linked to the Canvas course.

Navigate to your course.
Check if your students are enrolled by clicking on the People link in the course menu.
1. If your students are NOT listed, you must link your course to the Registrar sections (see the Prepare to Teach guide) before adding users.
2. If your students are listed, continue to the next step.
Click on ISU AdminTools on your course navigation.
Choose Manage Additional People.
Enter the Net-ID in the textbox.
Choose their role with the Role drop-down menu.
Determine which specific registrar section the user requires student data access; then, select it with the Section drop-down menu (or choose All Sections)
Click the Add button

For example: If a TA is ONLY working with your students in Section 7 – add them directly to that specific course section in ISU AdminTools, enter their net-id, choose which role with the drop-down menu, and select Section 7 in the Section drop-down menu.

Note: If the user does not have a university Net-ID, you can Create an Affiliate User.

Course Roles and Permissions

Note: If you want a user to have Full Instructor (Role 1) privileges within your course you will need to contact your departmental administrator to add them as an instructor in the course.

Student Role

The Student role is a participant in the course that can view all published content and activities.
Any graded activities will then be reflected in the Gradebook.
Note: Student enrollment is handled by Registrar data that updates nightly. If a student does not have access to your course but feels they should be in the course, please refer them to the Registrar’s office.
To learn how to enroll students and publish your course at Iowa State University, visit the Prepare to Teach in Canvas web guide.
Important: Adding a student to the course manually can cause issues with enrollment, payment, and grade processing.

Teacher Role (Instructor of Record)

The Teacher role has access to all areas of the course and all areas in Settings to manage the course.
This role also has access to Global Course Administration and ISU AdminTools for the course.
Note: This role is automatically given to the Instructor of Record in the course as designated by their department.

Co-teacher Role (Non-Instructor of Record)

The Co-teacher role has access to all areas of the course and all areas in Settings to manage the course.
This role has limited access to Global Course Administration and ISU AdminTools for the course.
A Co-teacher only has access to the specific section they have been granted access to unless the instructor has specified that course members can collaborate across sections via ISU AdminTools: Additional Course Settings.

Teaching Assistant (TA) Role

The Teaching Assistant role has access to all areas of the course and all areas in Settings to manage the course but is unable to manage alerts, outcomes, Teachers, and Designers.
This role has limited access to Global Course Administration and ISU AdminTools for the course.
A TA only has access to the specific section(s) they have been granted access to unless the Teacher has specified that course members can collaborate across sections via ISU AdminTools: Additional Course Settings.
This role cannot add or edit New Quizzes.

Designer Role

The Designer role has access to assist in the design and development of the course and the creation of content and activities.
This role does not participate in the course and does not have access to student grades or submitted work.
This role cannot add or edit New Quizzes. Individuals must be enrolled as the Designer New Quizzes role in order to have access to New Quizzes in the Designer role.

Designer New Quizzes Role

The Designer New Quizzes role can create content activities in the course.
This role can add and edit New Quizzes.
This role does not have access to student grades and submitted work.

Guest Lecturer Role

The Guest Lecturer is a custom role at Iowa State University that provides viewing access to all content within the course and the ability to participate in communication such as discussions and messages.
This role was created specifically for Guest Lecturers and Scholars.

Observer Role

The Observer role is a view-only role and is unable to participate in any way. Iowa State uses this role for some Academic Advisors to observe student performance.
Note: Students who are being monitored are aware of this action. For more information on this role please see the Canvas Observer Role Frequently Asked Questions.

Peer Reviewer Role

The Peer Reviewer is a custom role at Iowa State University that provides viewing-only access to all content within the course.
This role does not participate in the course and does not have access to student grades or submitted work, including communication such as discussions and messages. This role was created specifically for Peer Observers, Tutors, Transcribers, and Interpreters.
Peer Reviewer (Legacy) is a role that was used prior to 5/17/19.

Create affiliate user

ISU Canvas courses may only include people with an ISU Net-ID. You can sponsor a new Net-ID for a person who is neither a student nor employee of Iowa State University, but still has an affiliation with the University. This affiliation can be as a visiting scholar, scientist, researcher or for another university business purpose, as determined by the administrative officer or their delegate.

It is expected that the sponsored Net-ID will be terminated when that business purpose has been fulfilled. A university employee may request to sponsor a Net-ID by logging into Account Services on the Web (ASW) page and selecting “Manage Sponsored Net-IDs” followed by “Request a New Sponsored Net-ID”.

Select New Affiliate Net-ID for people outside the university. These Net-IDs must be reviewed/renewed every spring (by March 1) and fall (by October 1).
Select New Role Net-ID for ISU business functions. These Net-IDs must be reviewed/renewed every fall (by October 1).

Select an appropriate approver. The approver is responsible for reviewing the reason the Net-ID is being requested and for working with the sponsor to terminate the Net-ID when appropriate.

At the designated time, a renewal reminder will be sent to the sponsor of the Net-ID. If the sponsor wishes to renew the Net-ID, they will need to send a reminder to an authorized approver.

Canvas Observer Role Frequently Asked Questions

What is the ‘observer role’ and how is it used to support student success?

There are students at Iowa State University who require timely academic monitoring to help support their academic performance and progress towards graduation, and to meet external reporting requirements; this includes many student-athletes. The observer role in Canvas assists Athletics Academic Advisors (full-time professional staff in Athletics) with monitoring a student-athlete’s academic progress throughout the semester in compliance with NCAA (National Collegiate Athletic Association) guidelines.

What type of access does the observer role in Canvas entail?

The observer role in Canvas is a ‘view only’ role. Observers can view course announcements and some course materials. They cannot view quizzes or exams that are administered through those features in Canvas. An observer can only view the gradebook entries for the specific student-athlete(s) they are assigned to. The observer role is limited to only full-time, professional academic advisors within the Office of Student Athlete Development.

Does a student-athlete know their athletics advisor can view their scores in the Canvas gradebook?

Yes. Each student-athlete knows who their athletics advisor is, and each student-athlete assents to the advisor viewing their gradebook entries in Canvas. A student-athlete completes this approval process each semester.

As a faculty member, what about my intellectual property? Is it safe?

Athletics advisors in the observer role are trained and educated to respect intellectual property rights. Each of these academic professionals signs a confidentiality nondisclosure agreement and completes FERPA (Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act) training each year.

How will I know if I have a student-athlete in my course?

There will be communication prior to the start of each semester to all faculty/instructors of record who have a student-athlete(s) enrolled in their Canvas course. The athletics advisor assigned to the student-athlete will be added to the Canvas course in an observer role at the beginning of the semester.

How many athletic department observers are linked to my course?

In the past, instructors may have noticed multiple observers/athletic advisors names in their course. Each advisor was assigned to an individual student-athlete based on their sport. However, in large courses there are often student-athletes from multiple sports enrolled. Athletics, IT and CELT are currently working on a solution to reduce the number of individuals in an observer role in each course. The goal is to have one or two athletics advisors in the observation role for all student-athletes in a given course.