Consultant Policy for Canvas

[kljaia]

I am looking for guidance on a policy for consultants at our institution. We currently do not have canvas specific documentation outlining their role, access, interaction, and removal of consultants in our environment. If you are willing to share your policy as a reference that would be greatly appreciated. Any insight would be beneficial. 

Thank you in advance.

~ Karie

[chriscas]

Hi @kljaia,

Full disclosure up front, we do not have a policy specific to consultants at my institution, but that's because the consultants we currently use are not consulting around the LMS at all.  We do have a general Classroom and Learning Management System Course Access Policy though, which you can reference if you'd like.

So that leads me into a question for you... What are the consultants you're referring to consulting on?  Is it instructional design, technology, teaching in general, assessment, etc...  The answer to that might guide whatever policy you might create.  I'd say in general when we are adding people into a Canvas course, we give them the most limited role possible that will allow them to accomplish their task.  We are especially protective of FERPA data, like rosters and grades.  We really do whatever we can to protect student data and not have a ton of "extra" people in our official SIS course shells.  I would advise crafting your policy around that general thought.

I know this post isn't necessarily what you may have been looking for, but I hope these thoughts may be helpful to you!

-Chris

[kljaia]

Hello @chriscas ,

Thank you for your response. Thank you for sharing your Classroom and Learning Management System Course Access Policy. I greatly appreciate it. 

We recently had a specialized accreditor require access and in the future we anticipate more accreditor requests. Currently we approach their integration or activity within our environment from a time perspective, granting limited use during a specific calendar period. I agree FERPA is one of the most important areas to protect and we are doing our best to make sure that is always protected. Have you had any accreditor requests? If you or anyone you know has experience working with an accreditor requesting access to their Canvas environment I would love to hear about the experience and any lessons learned. 

Thank you again for the response and resource, Chris!

~ Karie