Course Roles and Permissions

• Instructor role
• Full permissions

Tutorial Assistants have a similar level of access to a course as the Instructor except for the ability to add or remove other teachers, designers, TAs, or students to the course.

This role should only be assigned to undergraduate or graduate student teaching assistants.

TAs can:

• Create and manage course content 
• Grade student work, has overall access to grades 
• Modify the course calendar 
• See full list of participants in the course 
• Manage grading rubrics, assignments and quizzes 
• View, edit and moderate all grades 
• Manage course files, pages and other course content 
• Manage course sections and groups 
• Post to and moderate discussions 
• Send messages either to individuals or entire course 
• View and comment on student submissions 
• Can publish/unpublish course

TAs cannot:

• Add or remove teachers, designers, or other TAs from the course
• Add or remove students from the course

Similar level of access to a course as the Instructor and TAs, except for the ability to add or remove other teachers, designers, TAs, or students to the course

This role should properly be assigned to administrative staff who are assisting with the operations of a course.

Course Staff can:

• Create and manage course content 
• Grade student work, has overall access to grades 
• Modify the course calendar 
• See full list of participants in the course 
• Manage grading rubrics, assignments and quizzes 
• View, edit and moderate all grades 
• Manage course files, pages and other course content 
• Manage course sections and groups 
• Post to and moderate discussions 
• Send messages either to individuals or entire course 
• View and comment on student submissions 
• Publish/unpublish course

TAs cannot:

• Add or remove teachers, designers, or other TAs from the course
• Add or remove students from the course

Limited role with grading, discussion moderating permissions,and ability to view users and certain acitivity.

A Grader can:

• View, edit and moderate all grades 
• Grade student work; has overall access to grades 
• See full list of participants in the course 
• Manage grading rubrics 
• Send messages either to individuals or entire course 
• View and comment on student submissions 
• View announcements, discussions and group pages

A Grader cannot:

• create or modify course content (has limited or no access)

A Course Designer creates and manages course content, and interacts with students.  The Designer has no access to student grades.

A Designer can:

• See full list of participants in the course 
• Modifies the course calendar 
• Manages grading rubrics, assignments and quizzes 
• Manages course files, pages and other course content 
• Manages course sections and groups 
• Posts to and moderates discussions
• Can post announcements 
• Sends messages either to individuals or entire course 
• Can publish/unpublish course

The Librarian role is intended for Librarians who may provide content such as links and readings for the course.

Please visit Library Reading List for more information on how the library can help to make your course readings available to your students. 

Teaching Librarians should be added with the Teacher role 

Librarians can:

• See a full list of course participants
• Modify the course calendar
• Manage course files, pages and other course content 
• Post to discussions, but can not manage or moderate discussions. 
• Sends messages either to individuals or entire course 

Librarians cannot:

• access student grades 
• post announcements

Observers have a limited role: they cannot participate in course activities and are not tracked in the grades area. This is typically the role that would be assigned to students reviewing content in preparation for deferred exams. 

Observers can:

• View course content including Modules, Pages, Assignments, Announcements, Discussions, Calendar, and files (unless they are locked).
• Join Collaborations, if invited.
• Send conversation messages to the course instructors and TAs 

Observers cannot:

• Submit assignments and quizzes
• Reply to discussions
• Join Groups
• Reserve appointment slots in the Scheduler

Note: The Canvas documentation for the observer role references a feature where an instructor or admin can link an observer directly to one or more students, letting the observer view that student’s grades, assignments, and course interactions. This feature originates in K-12 Canvas, where it gives parents and guardians visibility into a child’s coursework. This is not a supported workflow at U of T.

This is the default role for students participating in a course, particularly those officially registered on ROSI (or another student registration system) 

Others participating in a course in a student-like role (e.g. Auditors) should be added with one of the other available course roles. 

Students can:

• View course files, pages and other course content 
• See the list of other participants in the course if the People page has been made visible
• Send messages to Teachers, TAs, Course Staff and Graders
• View announcements and participate in discussions 
• Participates in assignments and assessments 
• Be tracked in the grades area 

ALERT: Should not be used to enroll students who are waitlisted for admission for the course.

The Unregistered User role has similar permissions to students.  It differentiates students who will be active participants in the course but who aren’t officially registered for credit

Unregistered students can:

• View course files, pages and other course content
• See the list of other participants in the course if the People page has been made visible
• Send messages to Teachers, TAs, Course Staff and Graders
• View announcements and participate in discussions
• Participate in assignments and assessments
• Be tracked in the grades area