[ARCHIVED] Prevent Users from Changing Account Settings

[kate_hill]

I am wondering if anyone has tried to prevent students/users from changing their default email addresses in Canvas.

We require students to use their institutional email account for ALL communication within our university (for several reasons, which I know you all understand). However, I cannot seem to figure out how to prevent users from changing these settings. My main issue is keeping students from changing their default email address. Does anyone have a workaround for that, or am I missing a setting?

[amcdona · Accepted solution]

At the University of Florida we added the following to our CSS to hide the buttons for users to add communication channels (not perfect but covers most users).

.add_email_link {

    display: none;

}

.add_contact_link {

    display: none;

}

[kona]

 @kate_hill , I think there was a recent discussion about this, but I can't find it. What I did find was - Student email - which discusses that you can prevent students from removing their institutional email, but that you can't stop them from changing the default email. Not sure if there's some type of back-end programming that could be done to prevent this.

[amcdona · Accepted solution]

At the University of Florida we added the following to our CSS to hide the buttons for users to add communication channels (not perfect but covers most users).

.add_email_link {

    display: none;

}

.add_contact_link {

    display: none;

}

[kate_hill]

That is AWESOME!!!!

For those of us (me, mainly), that are not skilled with the coding, can you tell me where and how to add that to my Canvas account? I'm pretty tech savvy, and can figure most of that out, but am not sure where to start on this one.

[amcdona · Accepted solution]

Here is a link to the Canvas Guide

How do I add custom JavaScript and CSS files to an account?

[shane_ohara]

Hi  @kate_hill ​, if you have any interest in seeing what other JS/CSS options are out there, let me know and I'll share the custom ones from my institution with you. It's a great way to lock down button access/etc. to anyone that isn't an admin.

Shane

[scombs426]

@shane_ohara Do I understand correctly that this is still not an option to shut off from admin settings?  I see these posts from 2015 and not quite sure some other solution exists in 2021?

[MikeBrinkman]

We just got off a call with our CSM covering settings before you posted your message. If you go to https://yourinstitution.instructure.com/accounts/1/settings, there's a setting "Users can delete their institution-assigned email address", which I believe is unchecked by default. This doesn't prevent them from adding a new one, but they can't remove the existing one. I just tested with a faculty account and it can't be edited either.

[dspiel]

@shane_ohara This is a pretty old thread but would love to connect and see or hear about ones that you have felt important to implement.

[ann_strickland]

Hi Andrew, once you add the CSS to hide the buttons will all of the settings that the users currently have in place remain as they are? So, if they do not have their college issued email as the default will it stay with whatever they have changed to the default?

[abunag]

yes - this just hides the button.  Be aware someone that is familiar with CSS could still change their address.

[dsoares]

I'd love to see some of the customizations you have implemented at your University. 

Thanks,

Dan

[bwaters]

Canvas definitely needs to provide Administrators the option to lock down the default email address for students (and in some cases, perhaps instructors, etc.). I can't imagine why this oversight was not included in the program from the outset.

[rake_9]

To be clear, there is an admin setting that prevents students from deleting /changing their institution-assigned address (under the Settings tab, toward the bottom).  The issue is preventing users from adding an additional address and switching that to be the default.

[ann_strickland]

This is also an issue for my College. We actually had a student add all of their instructor's email addresses to "ways to contact" and I had to go remove them from that student's account. I am also not a coder but will be looking at the custom CSS options that you guys have shared. Thanks for sharing!

[swinter]

We had the Canvas techs do this for us since we don't even use email for logins. We had to have them remove the ability for users to change their login and email address (since that gets set in our main database and pushed over). I can't tell you what coding they did, but the result is that the icons to change/delete emails/logins are gone.

Susan

[Robbie_Grant]

 @kate_hill ,

We are giving the Canvas Admins area a little bit of love (especially questions that are really, really old) and just want to check in with you.  This will also bring this question new attention. 

Were you able to find an answer to your question? I am going to go ahead and mark this question as answered because there hasn't been any more activity in a while so I assume that you have the information that you need. If you still have a question about this or if you have information that you would like to share with the community, by all means, please do come back and leave a comment.  Also, if this question has been answered by one of the previous replies, please feel free to mark that answer as correct.

Robbie

[ann_strickland]

I would like to see an actual feature change added to resolve this issue. I feel like a CSS workaround is not sufficient enough for Colleges and Universities to be in compliance with their own communication policies for students and employees. We need an option to lock the default email account. And I would like to see an option to turn off the other "ways to contact."

While I believe the responses posted were helpful, I do not feel like they have "answered" the question.