Allowing teachers to enter students and the students' first and last names into courses.

[ChristinaCline2]

Our school currently has a trial version of Canvas for our district. Our teachers are trying to enter the students into their courses but it wouldn't allow them.  I was allowed to enter mine, then was given the optional boxes of entering students' first and last names (but I also have admin rights, so I assumed this is why). 

So, in the admin settings, I clicked open registration, and now teachers can enter their students' emails, BUT they are not getting the option to enter students' first and last names like I did when I added students, only the option to create a new user ID for them. I have also looked at my courses, and now when I add a student, I can't add their first/last name either, as I previously was able to do. Can someone please tell me what I need to click to help the teachers be able to enter student names? 

We will not be integrating with PowerSchool until February, so syncing things is not an option. 

[chriscas · Accepted solution]

Hi @ChristinaCline2,

I would encourage you to wait as much as possible for your PowerSchool integration to get up and running before adding a ton of users to Canvas.  I an a higher-ed admin and do not have PowerSchool-speciric experience, but no matter what SIS you use, it's going to be important for into to match properly to avoid errors in the future.  Doing too much work manually with users who will eventually be in a PowerSchol feed may cause more headaches in the future than you may realize.

I'd say in general though, as you have observed, admins can set user names for them when adding to a course, but I think when a teacher-role adds a person to a course vias email, the person will end up setting their own name up, and that's baisclaly just the way Canvas is coded and cannot be easily changed.

I hope this helps a bit!

-Chris