Accepting Students

[JohnJay1]

How do you accept a pending student into a course? We will not require students to create a canvas account. Would like either instructor or administrator to accept on behalf of student. 

[RecycledElectro]

As a teacher, I add students to my course, then they have to log into Canvas and accept the invitation. It is at the top left when they look at their DashBoard.

[JohnJay1]

Not exactly what I'm looking for. How can the instructor or administrator accept a student to a course? We do not want to rely on the student accepting the invitation. 

[JennyDruckrey · Accepted solution]

You mention that you won't require students to create a Canvas account.  In order to accept an invite/be added to a course a student must create an account.  Students must also have an account if you want a record of participation or assignment submissions.  If you don't want student to create an account, you can make the course public for anyone (including people outside of your organization) to access with a link.  How do I customize visibility options for a course... - Instructure Community - 844 (canvaslms.com)

If you require students to create a Canvas account, you can skip the invite by having your admin (edit to clarify- Canvas Admin) upload an enrollment file (SIS Import).  They will be added to the course automatically but will still have to login to view Canvas content.

[JohnJay1]

Thank you @JennyDruckrey. Because our students are early elementary students, we won't have them engaged with Canvas. We just want to use Canvas so the instructors can record attendance and denote participation behavior. Would your suggestion still apply?

[JennyDruckrey]

@JohnJay1  - In order to record these things, students would still need to have accounts/email addresses and be added to the course, so the public course option will not work. 

The options for the SIS import enrollment file upload or "Act as User" to accept student invites on their behalf will work to get students added to the course without them needing to login to Canvas.  As @TrishaMeyer1 points out, your school needs a Canvas subscription with a Canvas Account Admin role for either of these solutions.

[TrishaMeyer1]

Hi @JohnJay1 ,

If your institution has purchased a Canvas subscription (i.e. not a Free for Teachers account), then someone at your institution is a Canvas Administrator. A Canvas Administrator can "Act As" a user and accept invitations on their behalf. 

In order to invite students to a course, they will need to have Canvas accounts (as @JennyDruckrey mentioned), which requires an email account. In many districts students have email accounts in the background (often a Google account) that they don't actually have access to until they are older (often middle school). So theoretically your institution could create Canvas accounts for your students, invite them to your course, and then accept on their behalf without ever having the students themselves log in or see any Canvas content. Whether any of this is possible in reality depends on what kind of account your institution has and what kind of student accounts you use.

A person's role at your school (instructor vs administrator) is irrelevant; all that matters is what role a person has in Canvas (Teacher, Student, Administrator, Observer, etc.). Only Canvas Administrators can "Act As" other users.