Flags to set "limit this user to only see fellow section users" on course enrollments

[gncrum]

Hello,

Are there any user permissions or other flags or settings to set the course user privilege  "limit this user to only see fellow section users".  On the add people screen this can be set manually, but I am wondering if there is a way to set this globally for our automated SIS enrollment process, either in Canvas itself or in the script we use to populate and create our Canvas courses from Banner.

To give a little context, we are trying to avoid any FERPA violations when instructors cross-list their courses by limiting the exposure of student names across sections. 

There look to be some scripts/tools to automate the cross-listing process that incorporate these controls...

-Greg

[chriscas · Accepted solution]

Hi @gncrum,

Assuming you are using a script that generates sis csv files which get imported into Canvas, you can have a limit_section_privileges column in the enrollments.csv file which you'd set to true for each student or faculty enrollment (depending on your desired outcome).  The sis import format api documentation covers all of the options, including this one, if you're ever curious about what other things may be available.

Hope this helps!

-Chris

[gncrum]

Thanks, Chris:

One other follow-up Question. 

Do you know if there is a way to control the "limit section privileges" options natively in Canvas when instructors choose to manually cross-list sections?

The cross-list I am assuming is a type of enrollment and I a wondering if there are any controls on this process within the admin interface. I am guessing not as I see some institutions like the University of Texas at Austin have created custom cross-listing scripts that address this problem.

The only workaround that I found that works is to use the +people to re-enroll all users after the crosslist and check the "limit privileges" box. Instructors can get the ids/emails of all the users separated by section from New Analytics Roster Report .csv file  and cut and paste them in the +People box. This seems to update all users to the appropriate "limit section privileges option"

-Greg

[chriscas]

Hi @gncrum,

The crosslisting in Canvas essentially just changes the course a section is affiliated with (ex: section 1 originally was associated with course a, but was then crosslisted to course b).  The enrollments in the section don't really change, but the course shell they are affiliated with, so if you set the limit_section_privileges in your SIS CSV file, that restriction would still be in place after crosslisting.

Now it does get more complicated if you allow teachers to add people to a course, as they would then be responsible for checking that box for the people they manually enroll.  We don't allow teachers to add people themselves at my institution, so it haven't been a problem for us.  Something to think about if you move forward on this...

Hope this helps!

-Chris

[TrinaAltman]

@gncrum - One other thing to keep in mind even if you do "limit this user to only see fellow section users" (either in the UI or via SIS import) is that flag does limit many significant sources of exposure to student names from other sections for cross-listed courses (such as the list in the People tool), but not all. There are a few holes where students can still see student names from other sections, depending on the tools the instructor is using. I last tested this in spring 2022 (based on comments I found from others in Community over time) so it's possible some things have changed since then. Here are some places I confirmed they could still see students from other sections at that time:

• Discussion posts
• Group sets - even if the instructor selects 'Require group members to be in the same section '
• Conversations: See names from other sections when viewing Teacher message that was sent to All Students; See names and send messages when replying to this message
• The names of students who have edited pages (if Pages are set to be editable by students)

Trina