Canvas - Adding People to a Canvas Course [UW-Madison]
In UW-Madison timetable (for-credit) courses, Canvas enrollments are automatically updated based on the official enrollment record in the Student Information System (SIS).
Instructors are not able to manually add students to timetable courses. However, they can can add users to their timetable courses in instructor or staff roles, To protect student privacy, avoid making manual enrollments whenever possible. See the Office of Registrar's FERPA guide for more information on student privacy and FERPA best practices.
Adding a Participant to a Canvas Course
Use the People tool in Canvas to add someone to your course who has a NetID.
- Log into Canvas at canvas.wisc.edu and navigate to the appropriate course.
- Select People from the course navigation panel on the left side of the page.
- Click the red + People button on the right side of the screen. If the button is grayed out, see Adding a Participant to a Canvas Course that Has Ended below (under Special Circumstances)
- An Add People window will open.
- Select the Login ID radio button and enter the participant's login ID in the format NetID@wisc.edu (e.g. bbadger@wisc.edu, not just bbadger.)
We recommend searching by Login ID using the format NetID@wisc.edu. If you receive the error message We were unable to find matches below, please verify you are adding the individuals using this format. This is because preferred email addresses do not always match the NetID.
If the user in question is not affiliated with UW-Madison and does not have a NetID, see Canvas - Access for Non-UW Personnel.
- Select the Role and Section you want to add the person to and click Next. A validation message should display.
- Click the red Add Users button.
Special Circumstances
Participants external to the university
- If adding a participant who is external to the university, see Canvas - Requesting Access for External Users [UW-Madison]
Adding a participant to a course after the end date has passed
- If a course has ended, you must temporarily set the Course End date to a date in the future.
- These dates are found under Settings>Course Details
- If the term end date has passed, change Participation from Term to Course, and select a new end date in the future.
- After adding the participants, Remember to revert the end date back to it original setting.
Adding Students to a Course
Instructors should NOT add students to timetable (for-credit) courses manually. Students added to the course outside of the automatic update procedure will lack access to some course functions. Manual enrollment is exclusive to non-timetable courses.
- Students, including student auditors, must enroll in courses through the normal enrollment process. (See: Student Center - Enrolling in Classes)
- Enrolled students will be automatically added to their Canvas courses roughly three weeks prior to the start of the semester.
- Students who enroll in a course after the start of the semester will also be automatically added to your Canvas course within 48 hours.
- During the semester, Canvas syncs with the Student Information System (SIS) nightly and adds or drops students based on the information it finds within SIS.
If a student is not seeing a course that they are enrolled in, they should contact the DoIT Help Desk.
J-1 Scholars/Visiting Scholars
We will occasionally receive requests to add “J-1 scholars” or “Visiting scholars” to Canvas courses. These individuals holding a J-1 visa are research scholars and, by law, can observe the class. However, immigration regulations dictate that they cannot be a student or employee of the University, and as a result, cannot be added via SIS/Peoplesoft.
J-1 scholars have very different reasons for attending these classes than a traditional student: They are there to observe in a scholarly manner and not complete the course for credit.
Which role should we assign them in Canvas?
After extensive consultation between Learn@UW, the International Faculty and Staff Services group, and the Office of the Registrar, it has been decided that Learn@UW Staff are allowed to manually enroll these individuals in Canvas courses, using the Observer role.
This is consistent with legal regulations for these scholars, which say that they can observe. We are using plain language for the sake of consistency: J-1 scholars are not students, and they are not paying for the class. Because Observers cannot see the course roster in Canvas, they are not violating FERPA regulations.
The Canvas Observer role provides permissions that best replicate J-1 scholars’ roles in an in-person classroom setting. In that setting, scholars would sit in the back of the room, and:
- Observe lectures and presentations
- Access the syllabus
- Access weekly readings/assignments
- Observe questions and conversations that occur as part of the course.
- They do not interact with students in these settings
Adding a J-1 scholar to a course
Note: Only Learn@UW staff should add J-1 scholars to Canvas courses, as Observers. The J-1 scholar should be added only after getting express permission from an instructor of the course.
- Follow the instructions under “adding a participant to a Canvas course”, and select “Observer” on step 5.
- Reply to the requesting instructor using the email below:
Hello,
Learn@UW staff have enrolled [scholar name] into [course name] as an Observer, so they should now be able to access the course.
This level of access preserves the sense of the Visiting Scholar as an observer but does not encroach on student FERPA privacy assurances. There may be things that the Visiting Scholar can’t do, such as viewing or participating in discussions. For a full list of actions the Observer role can and cannot do, please refer to this Knowledgebase document: https://kb.wisc.edu/luwmad/63420
If you have any questions, please let us know.
Thanks,
Learn@UW Support
Doctor of Audiology Program
In Fall 2023, Members of the RO, Audiology program, and Graduate School convened to discuss business processes and needs of the Doctor of Audiology - Communication Sciences & Disorders program.
The RO will work with the program to be sec-auth. Then, they will request that Learn@UW staff add these individuals to requested Canvas courses with the role of student. In this specific case, LUW staff are authorized to manually add students to for-credit courses.
Learn@UW received this information from Will Lipske, Office of the Registrar.
Honorary Fellows
Honorary Fellows can be added to a Canvas course as an observer, with consent of the principal instructor. For example, a post-doc may want to sit in on a class taught by their research mentor so they can observe pedagogy, content delivery, etc. However, if they are truly auditing the course, they cannot be manually added, and should apply to be a guest auditor. This is based on guidance Learn@UW received from the Office of the Registrar.
Study Abroad
Since Study Abroad courses are typically created manually, instructors manually enroll students. If the course contains over 50 students, they can work with the Registrar's Office to create a SIS import file, as shown in Canvas - Uploading Compliance Course Enrollment Files to CSI [UW-Madison]. After they create the file, Learn@UW's noncredit administrator can import the file into their course.
If the Help Desk receives a case for this, escalate to Learn@UW Support, classified as Canvas>Non-timetable Support.