Up vote to be able to masquerade in Catalog

[jsowalsk]

Hi everyone,

Please upvote to provide the ability to be able to masquerade as a student in Catalog:

https://community.canvaslms.com/ideas/10937-masquerade-as-students-in-canvas-catalog

Jessica

[kathy_harris]

Hi  @jsowalsk ‌. I've been able to masquerade as a student in Catalog. First, I go to Canvas and "Act As" the student. Once I'm masquerading in their account, I click the Dashboard Icon. I am taken into that user's Catalog account.

I haven't been able to stop masquerading as the student in Catalog, though. I have to go back to Canvas to stop masquerading as the student in order to get my admin access back in Catalog.

I looked at your link. Hopefully this will help with most of the reasons that you listed. However, I don't know if we can customize the transcript. If you know how to do that, I would love some tips. 

As for the student's not able to access their courses, have the courses moved to "Completed"? The courses move to completed once the time limit has passed. That is one thought I've had.

[jsowalsk]

Hi Kathy,

They have issues finding their courses since it lists ALL of the courses they are enrolled in, in Canvas in the In Progress bar. To customize the transcript, you need to download the transcript and use Adobe Acrobat customize it. We would like the option to act as a student to be able to see what they see. I hope this helps.

Jessica

[kathy_harris]

Were you able to masquerade as the student in Catalog?

Thanks for the tip on how to Customize the Transcript. I wouldn't have thought of that as a solution. Thank you!

[jsowalsk]

Nope, it didn't work for me. I did exactly what you said.

[kathy_harris]

I'm sorry! I thought I had a solution for you. I wonder why it won't let you do it like that? 

[jsowalsk]

I am a super admin and I masquerade as a student. Is your instance of Catalog sitting on top of Canvas? 

[kathy_harris]

That may be the difference. I don't think I am a super admin.  @tyler_clair ‌ may know if that is what is making the difference. He would also be able to answer your question about if Catalog is sitting on top of Canvas. I'm not sure how it was all set up.

[jsowalsk]

Great, thank you.

[bernstlc]

Like Kathy, I had always been able to Act As student in Catalog by Acting As in Canvas, then clicking the Dashboard icon to go into Catalog as that student. However, just this week I went to do this to retrieve a certificate for a student who was having trouble, and it didn't work! It's the first time it hasn't worked, so I'm wondering if Instructure made some change. Could  @kathy_harris  (and/or someone else who has been able to Act As in the past) let me know if they are experiencing the same thing?

And could  @jfenton ‌ shed some light on what, if any, changes Instructure made that might explain this?

Acting As a student in Catalog has been very useful and the workarounds without it are very cumbersome.

[kathy_harris]

I just tried it. No, I no longer have this ability. It is now broken for me, too.

Funny thing, though, when I go back to Canvas, I am still acting as the user in Canvas. I have to click “Stop Acting as User” in order to get my Admin rights back in Canvas.

[jfenton]

Hi Leigh! 

Thanks for posting about this issue. You are correct, masquerading as another user in Catalog is not currently possible. While masquerading can be very helpful, it actually has not been a supported feature for the platform. It was inadvertently available for some users in the past, but not for everyone. Recently it stopped being available to all users. 

We recognize how valuable masquerading can be for admins, especially in Catalog. We're currently investigating why this was only available to a subset of our users in the past, as well as what caused it to stop working. We believe it might be the result of a recent change that was made to Canvas rather than to Catalog, but we're still digging. Once we've identified the cause, we'll also be able to put a plan in place to restore the functionality. And rather than just restoring it for the users who were able to masquerade in the past, we'll be exploring how to make it available to all of our users. 

I hope to have more information soon and will be sure to update the group. And please let me know if you have any questions.

[jsowalsk]

Hi  @jfenton ‌, This is an important feature for all admins to support faculty, staff, and students to make sure they can enroll in courses, drop courses, and view and print their certificate of completion and their transcripts. This way we can replicate issues. Can you please look into this for us so it is an important need for all Catalog admins to have.

Thanks,

Jessica

[jfenton]

Thanks for your comment, Jessica. It certainly is an important feature and we're actively looking into it. 

[jsowalsk]

Great, thank you.

[bernstlc]

Today, "Act As" in Catalog is working for me again. Should we expect it to stay this way, or will the ability come and go as Instructure investigates the issue?

[jfenton]

Hey Leigh, 

Good news! Masquerading should now be working again for all admins who have been able to masquerade in the past. 

We're still exploring why this is not working for all users.  @jsowalsk ‌ mentioned that she has not been able masquerade in Catalog. Are there others that are not able to masquerade?

[jscarlson]

There were several of us (I believe) who were not able to masquerade in Catalog, but would find this functionality helpful.

Janet S. Carlson, PHR, SHRM-CP

Program Coordinator

Kansas State University Global Campus

Online/Noncredit Professional Development Programs

1615 Anderson Avenue, #256

Manhattan, KS 66502-4098

785-532-2494

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