Is Canvas Catalog required to sell a course built on Canvas LMS?

[emckay]

I'd like to know if a course built using Canvas LMS can be sold to a student via an ecommerce solution that is not Canvas Catalog? 

[mzimmerman]

Hi @emckay 

Is your question about the technical requirements for getting payment and generating accounts and enrollments for courses in Canvas, or about any legal/contractual restrictions that may exist with Instructure?

[emckay]

A bit of both. I want to confirm that the financial transaction related to a course built on Canvas LMS (in the case that course is available for public purchase) could be handled by an ecommerce provider outside of Canvas Catalog. If that is true, then my next step will be determining technical requirements for generating accounts and enrollments for (and access to) courses in Canvas LMS. I assume that one (non-Instructure) platform can be used for ecommerce transactions and the access bit can be handled in Canvas LMS (manually or via API from another system).

[mzimmerman · Accepted solution]

Canvas does not handle financial transactions, nor does it require payments when creating a user or enrollment.  If you are charging for a course, it's entirely up to you how you collect payments.

There is information about integrating Canvas with an SIS system, which includes how to generate users, courses, and enrollments with feed file, at https://community.canvaslms.com/t5/Canvas-Basics-Guide/What-are-SIS-Imports/ta-p/47 .   There is information about both import formats and APIs at https://canvas.instructure.com/doc/api/file.sis_csv.html 

I presume you using your own instance of Canvas?  You will not have access to many of these tools and processes if you do not have administrator access.