Observer Accounts and Pairing Codes

[jlhummel]

I've recently been exploring Observer Accounts and Pairing Codes.  We have a program at our school where some students have a mentor who comes along with them to classes (physically and virtually) and assists them in understanding and completing assignments.  These mentors are hired but they can also be students or instructors already in the system and fulfilling dual roles. 

In the official documentation, I only see mention of how to use self-signup to create an Observer Account.  Then, the student generates a pairing code to give to them.  Is this only able to be done with this special type of self-generated account, or can anyone with any type of account in Canvas be issued a pairing code?

[melodyc_lam · Accepted solution]

@jlhummel 

Great question!

It can be any type of account in Canvas -- as long as they have a Canvas account, they can pair with an observer account. (I've already had to unlink students from other students this year.)

There is a workaround if you don't see the "Observing" link in your profile -- if you go to https://XXX.instructure.com/profile/observees when you're logged in (XXX being your institution's Canvas URL), you can find the page to enter in the code.

If you are a Canvas Admin with the ability to create SIS imports, you can also create a SIS import using the user_observers.CSV file  to pair up students with their mentors.

[jlhummel]

Thanks! I'll look into this more for sure now that I know anyone can be an observer.  One additional question.  Is there specific documentation on what settings need to be enabled to allow students/admins to generate the pairing codes?  I'm an admin and when I'm enrolled in a course as a student I don't see the option to generate a pairing code.  Is it because my account admin role overrides the student role in the course maybe? I know that happens sometimes with other things I've tried to test.

[melodyc_lam]

You can try generate the pairing codes en masse via these instructions, but do note that it only allows the observer to observe the student in that one course. 

There is also this document that details how codes are generated for each role.