[Commons] Canvas Commons Issues for Global Navigation

[MGrimes3]

I am a Canvas admin for a college and recently had two faculty members that have the Canvas role of "teacher" not be able to access commons. 

One has an active Spring 2022 enrollment and does not have access to Commons, one had a recent Fall 2021 enrollment, but did not. The solution I was given was to enroll in an active Spring 2022 enrollment term. 

This is concerning to me because we have numerous faculty that don't teach every semester, but utilize the content in commons to make courses in shells/sandboxes, etc. It seems weird to me that this would be a feature that Canvas gives and takes away depending on enrollment term. 

I think if an email is associated with a teacher roll, they should have access to commons. 

[KristinL]

Hi @MGrimes3 - You make a good point! I wonder if this is something that is functioning as designed. Have you collaborated with Support? I am curious if they are able to share some insight regarding this inconsistency. How do I get help with Canvas as an instructor? 

[MGrimes3]

Yes, I've collaborated with support and the recommendation was to just add them to any shell with a current term. However, this seems like a temporary solution to a problem. Because we have adjunct faculty that teach across 5 different colleges, we want the access to Canvas commons to remain regardless if they are teaching a current semester or not.