Is the Register New Account workflow missing an email verification step?

[JustinMason]

Hi All, I'm a new Canvas admin and I recently went through the process of registering a new user account in Catalog. However, the process as I experienced it seemed to be missing an email verification step.

After enrolling in a course and entering my info on the "Create An Account" page, the workflow brought me to a "Ready to Begin" page with the "Go To Course" button highlighted (screenshot below). When I clicked Go To Course, it took me to our Canvas LMS's login page—but I didn't know my login info yet.

The issue: nowhere in the process was it communicated that I needed to check my email for verification and to set up my password. In that respect, what I saw differed from the process that's documented in this community post, which shows what appears to be a page or pop-up in the process informing the user of the confirmation email (screenshot below).

It was a confusing workflow without that confirmation email notification! I was surprised that I couldn't find any posts about the issue in the community forums. That led me to wonder... is this just happening in our Canvas Catalog instance? Or could it be a brand new issue? At first I thought maybe my browser blocked the pop-up, but when I went through the process again I got the same result, and there appeared to be no blocked pop-ups.

Thank you in advance to anyone who can lend their insight!

[JenniferJWhite]

Hi, @JustinMason - Did you get the confirmation email that was supposed to have been sent?  I was just wondering if this part of the process was also not working for you.

We here at the University of Maryland are not using the registration process that came with Catalog in our main instance (we have enrollment under an SSO), but we have a development instance that uses the Catalog registration.  I tried enrolling with a new account in our dev instance, and did get the subsequent page notifying me of the confirmation email, so all seems to be working as it should for us:

This page (that should come up after you register your account) is:  https://NNNN.catalog.canvaslms.com/courses/12345/enrollment/new

I'd reach out to your CSM and Instructure Support to see what might be happening, as something does seem amiss in your instance's workflow.. Sorry I can't offer more help, but just wanted to let you know that all seems to be working OK for us!

Oh! And I'd also like to share that we host a Catalog Users' Group that can be useful for issues like these. The group meets bi-monthly, and have a listserv.  If you'd be interested in joining us, please just send an email to itsupport@umd.edu and mention "Catalog Users' Group" in the subject/message -- we'd be happy to have you join us! 🙂

[JustinMason]

@JenniferJWhite, thank you so much for testing it in your Catalog—that is a big help! Since it worked for you, it might be an issue with our Catalog. To answer your question: yes, the system did send me the verification email. So our Catalog's account creation process technically works, but it would be confusing for new users. As you suggested, I'll reach out to our CSM. 

And thank you for the invitation to the Catalog users' group!

[OgechiNwadiuto]

Alright 

Thank you 

[hechla]

I know this is considered solved, but I'm pretty sure we're not seeing an actual page in Catalog that displays an email has been sent, etc. as Jennifer described. 

I documented the process for our marketing folks right before we went live and I took screenshots of every screen I saw as I enrolled in a paid for course (although I used a 100% off promotion code). If we start at the course listing page and click on the Enroll button, that then popped up the User Registration page (unless the user was already logged in). Assuming this is a new user they would fill in their name, etc. and register their account. This does generate a "Welcome" email with a button to Complete Registration (which takes a user to Canvas and prompts to create a password) but the next screen in Catalog was the Checkout page with a button to Pay and Enroll. After completing the payment, the user is taken back to Catalog and to a Ready to Begin page with a Go to Courses button. 

I'm wondering if the process if different for free courses vs. paid courses. Or whether other settings are enabled/disabled. 

[JenniferJWhite]

Hmm - interesting, @hechla .  I did test this out with a free course in our dev instance, so perhaps there is a difference in workflow between free and paid courses -- although I'm not sure why there should be. I'll bring this up with our CSM, too, and follow up if I get any further info.

Thanks for chiming in!

[JustinMason]

@hechla, thanks for your reply. To answer your question, I tested using a free course and the issue played out just as you described: a new user clicks the "Enroll Now" button in a free course, then registers an account in Catalog, after which the system sends a welcome email but does not communicate that an email has been sent. When the user clicks the "Go to Course" button, the system drops them at the Canvas LMS login page. Unfortunately, unless the user has thought to check their email without being prompted (unlikely), they'll be confused about how to log in.

As for settings, we recently turned on the new Storefront, but I don't know if this issue coincided with that change.

[jsowalsk · Accepted solution]

@JustinMason I would recommend submitting a support ticket if this issue is not resolved.