Granting developer key to student

[fosterl]

I have had a student request for a developer key in order to do a Senior Project developing a Canvas app. His intentions are good, and this seems like a worthy project, but I have concerns about doing this. If he creates an app (and presumably his instructor deploys it in the course), even though there is a permission-granting step for the other students to participate in the app, I just feel squishy about allowing this. His app would have access to ALL of that student's data, such as other courses they are in.

Have any of you let anyone have a developer key? Do you have any processes / procedures around who is allowed and who is not?

[kona]

 @fosterl ​, I'm going to also share your question with the Canvas Developers​ group in the Community. They are the ones doing the back-end programming/developing in Canvas and might have some good insight into why this might be an ok or not so ok idea.

[fosterl]

Thanks Kona, I wasn't sure where to ask this!

[kona]

No problem! Canvas Admin's is a good place to start and you can always post a question in one group and share it with others that might also be able to help!

[mcowen · Accepted solution]

Lindy,

I LOVE the idea of him developing his own Canvas app!

I'm a little concerned about FERPA laws.

Perhaps the student could install Canvas on a separate server following these instructions Quick Start · instructure/canvas-lms Wiki · GitHub

He could then has complete access to everything needed to develop his app.

With all his new knowledge & experience, he should seriously check out Careers | Instructure​

[fosterl]

Hi Mike, we did end up suggesting that he bring up his own Canvas server and host the LTI there. Then, if he gets it working, his instructor could even deploy it on our Canvas instance as a course-level tool using the URL and use it with real data. And I'm not as concerned about the instructor having this level of access, but giving it to a student was just a non-starter.

[Robbie_Grant]

 @fosterl ,

We are giving the Canvas Admins area a little bit of love (especially questions that are really, really old) and just want to check in with you.  This will also bring this question new attention. 

Were you able to find an answer to your question? I am going to go ahead and mark this question as answered because there hasn't been any more activity in a while so I assume that you have the information that you need. If you still have a question about this or if you have information that you would like to share with the community, by all means, please do come back and leave a comment.  Also, if this question has been answered by one of the previous replies, please feel free to mark that answer as correct.

Robbie

[fosterl]

 @Robbie_Grant ‌, I do feel like Deactivated user‌ had a good answer. We did not give the student a Dev Key, and I've learned a lot more about Developer Keys in the meantime, and I even more emphatically wouldn't do it now. I'm glad to see that someone goes through these once in a while to clean them up! Having a correct answer set really helps future users who stumble upon the topic!

[Robbie_Grant]

 @fosterl ,

I couldn't agree more Lindy! And thank you for marking Mike's answer as correct!!

Robbie