[Roles] Reveal Name of Observer-based Custom role

[mbmacdonald]

Problem statement:

I have created a few observer-based custom roles. In the People page, these all appear listed as "Observing: nobody" instead of the actual name of the role. This has led to a confusion at many levels.

Proposed solution:

Allow actual name of role to be visible everywhere. I understand that the origin of the observer role is from K-12 institutions where it is used for parents. A lot of Canvas users are using this role for other purposes, so it would be great if it could become more versatile.

User role(s):

admin,instructor,student,observer

[mbmacdonald]

Just commenting that I would still really like to see this idea implemented - or at least get into the pipeline. I have now created several custom observer-based roles which have eliminated a lot of permission problems I was having. The roles work 100% fine except for this issue, and it's not an issue at all. It's just that people get unnecessarily confused, and I get emails when there is actually no problem!

[EmmettCrass]

Problem statement:

"Observing: Nobody" is a poor name choice. It is not descriptive in a user-relevant way. We often (a few times a term at minimum) get requests to change this name to "Waitlisted" or "Auditor" because instructors don't understand what "Observing: Nobody" means. It creates confusion amongst all users, especially at the start of the term.

Proposed solution:

The ideal solution is to allow admins to change the names of custom roles. Alternatively, changing "Observing: Nobody" even to "Observer" or something more descriptive would be an improvement.

User role(s):

admin,instructor,student,ta,designer,observer

[EmmettCrass]

I included all user roles in this post because I do not understand what that field asks.