What is a trusted account in Canvas?

A trusted account is an instance of Canvas that has a trust relationship with another instance of Canvas. Instead of creating two separate accounts and merging them together, a trust relationship allows separate Canvas accounts to share user identities, so a user can log in to one account and access courses from both accounts.

If you select a third party authentication provider, you can select a trusted Canvas instance as the authentication provider. Learn more about configuring trusted Canvas instance authentication.

Notes:

  • When students enter a course in a Canvas instance with Tier One support, they have access to the Tier One phone number, but the support case is routed to their home Canvas instance support process.
  • The user license is counted in the instance where the user is created.
  • When a student enters a course in a trusted account, Global Navigation displays in the theme of the Canvas instance of the course.
  • Canvas Consortiums use a one-way trust. Learn more about how Canvas Consortiums use trust accounts.

Establish a Trust

To establish a trust between two or more accounts, the Canvas Operations team configures a trust setting, which is stored in the Canvas code. The Canvas interface never shows that a trust relationship is present. Trusts can be established between multiple accounts.

Contact your Customer Success Manager to discuss trust accounts or to establish a trust.

Confirm Trust Account

To verify whether a trust has been established in your account, log in to Canvas and  enter https://yourdomain.instructure.com/api/v1/accounts/:id/trust_links in your browser's address bar.

If you see something like the text below, it means the institution is trusting another school:

{
"id": 2,
"managing_account_id": 21980000000000000,
"managed_account_id": 1
}

If you see a blank page, it means the institution is not trusting any other Canvas instances.

Note: Sharing data between schools is completely up to the schools that are entering into the trust relationship. Instructure does not share user data between schools outside of Canvas.

Add Users

Manually via User Interface

If you're adding someone manually to a course by their user_id, login_id, or email, a column displays on the confirmation window that includes Institution. The Institution column displays the location of the user’s profile.

SIS Import with CSVs

Another method of enrollment is to import a formatted CSV file. Using the enrollments.csv file, a column called root_account is required for those users who exist in another institution. Use the user_id and the Canvas URL of the trusted account (e.g., school2.instructure.com) in the CSV file to upload in the SIS Import page of Canvas.­

Additionally, the root_account field in the logins.csv file is required when identifying users in a trusted account (e.g., when cross-listing users across accounts within a trusted account).

The user performing the import must be in the account where the course exists. For example, School 1 has a course and they need to enroll users from School 2, a trusted instance. The admin from School 1 (where the course exists) would generate an enrollments.csv file with the user_id of the student from School 2. Within the root_account column of the CSV, the admin would enter School 2’s Canvas URL (school2.instructure.com), omitting the https:// from the CSV file. After completing the rest of the enrollments.csv file, the School 1 Admin would then import that file on school1.instructure.com/accounts/:id/sis_import page, or they can upload it via SIS Imports API.

Trust Accounts in Test Environments

You can test trusts in a beta environment or another test environment as long as there is a trust established. Additionally, if you are importing from a CSV, you must set the root_account column in the enrollments.csv to the URL of the beta or test environment (school2.beta.instructure.com).

Note: After an initial trust is established in a beta environment, the trust must be reestablished after a beta reset occurs.

User Role Expectations and Limitations

Students, instructors, and admins can perform various activities in their home accounts and their trust accounts. Learn more about trust account user roles and expectations.  

The following behaviors do not apply to trust accounts:

  • Trusts do not show any information in the user interface indicating a trust with another school or that the course you are enrolled in is at another school. The trust is an invisible link that exists between two or more sites. Users enrolled in courses at trusted other schools are only able to see the names of the courses in which they are enrolled.
  • Trusts do not provide any data or a summation of which users are in a trust enrollment at another school.
  • User lists from one school cannot be browsed from another school. Admins from both schools need to work out a business process to send enrollments from one school to another.
  • Trusts do not provide any automation for trust enrollments. Users are enrolled via CSV uploads or via the API.
  • You cannot act as another user who is associated with a trusted account. You can only act as users who are associated with your same account.