[ARCHIVED] Test Student

[severino_gervac]

How do I add a Test Student to a class?

[cholling · Accepted solution]

Canvas has a built in Test Student - any actions you take in Student View are attributed to Test Student. It gives you a very good picture (but not 100%) of what actual students encounter in your course.

When I work, I often add an actual Test Student to my course for troubleshooting and documentation purposes. To do that I create a free email account using gmail or yahoo or something. Our university has the option to create "Guest Accounts". The free email account allows me to create one of those Guest Accounts to a course with the Student Role. I then use a different browser and login as my Test Student to navigate and work as Test Student.

[cholling · Accepted solution]

Canvas has a built in Test Student - any actions you take in Student View are attributed to Test Student. It gives you a very good picture (but not 100%) of what actual students encounter in your course.

When I work, I often add an actual Test Student to my course for troubleshooting and documentation purposes. To do that I create a free email account using gmail or yahoo or something. Our university has the option to create "Guest Accounts". The free email account allows me to create one of those Guest Accounts to a course with the Student Role. I then use a different browser and login as my Test Student to navigate and work as Test Student.

[KristinL · Accepted solution]

In addition to what @cholling  shared, here are the lessons for utilizing the Student View:

How do I view a course as a test student using Student View? 

How do I view Assignments in the Student app on my iOS device? 

[ChristyGant]

One of my current courses does not have the automatic test student added. How do I add one?

[Chris_Hofer]

Hi @ChristyGant ...

Are you following the steps that @KristinL had provided to others in this thread...as outlined in:

How do I view a course as a test student using Stu... - Instructure Community (canvaslms.com)

[PamelaImperato]

In these responses, I am not seeing how to actually add a "Test" student into a Canvas course.  

[Chris_Hofer]

Hello @PamelaImperato ...

There's nothing you really need to do in order to "add" a test student to your course.  When you use this Guide...

How do I view a course as a test student using Student View? 

... Canvas will automatically add a "Test Student" user to your course Gradebook.

If you no longer want the "Test Student" to appear as part of your course Gradebook, you can go to your course "Settings" page and then click on the "Sections" tab.  From there, click on the name of the section of your course ... which will have a number of users displayed in parentheses.  On the next screen, you will see a "Current Enrollments" heading, and the "Student, Test" user will be listed there.  If you are able to hover over "Student, Test", you may see a red/white "X" icon just to the right of it.  Click on the "X" to remove "Student, Test" from your course (and the Gradebook).  The next time you would view the course as the "Test Student", that user would be added back to your course Gradebook at the "Sections" tab of your "Settings" page.  If you are unable to delete the "Student, Test" user on your own, then you will need to reach out to your school's local Canvas administrator or someone from your school's Online Learning / eLearning / Distance Learning department to remove "Student, Test" for you.

I hope this helps a bit.  Let Community members know if you have any other questions about this...thanks!