How do you take a course as an admin?

[MartieSeaman]

I just recently was hired at an organization that uses Canvas, and I have (and am supposed to have) admin rights to Canvas. However, there are courses we have available on canvas that I also need to take as a Learner/Student to be in compliance. When I go to the dashboard, it says I am enrolled in the required courses as a learner, but when I navigate to the course, I have an admin view only, and the student view is just for testing. Unfortunately, I can't provide any screenshots due to the sensitive nature of the training, so please let me know if I need to provide more details. Thanks! 

[chriscas · Accepted solution]

Hi @MartieSeaman,

Since you're already a Canvas admin, having a student role probably won't change much visually for you.  Here's what it will change for sure:

1. You'll have the course on your dashboard instead of having to search for it
2. You'll be able to submit assignments as yourself (not using the student view)
3. You'll be able to take quizzes as yourself (not using a preview or student view)

Other than that, the course will probably look very much like it does as an admin.  You'll see all of the menus, be able to edit things, and you'll see the full gradebook (assuming your admin role includes that).  Canvas essentially combines the permissions of all your roles together instead of having one override the other.

What a lot of schools will end up doing in a situation where a person is both an admin and a student is give an alternate identity/login to that person.  One login would be for their admin work, and another one just for the student work.  This way there is less blending together of the various roles.

Hope this helps!

-Chris

[PaulFynn · Accepted solution]

Just to add to @chriscas useful post, @MartieSeaman , do be aware that if you have dual roles in the same module you may get contention between them. For example as an Admin you probably have access to Speedgrader for all students, where as a student you only see your own.

So if you find that teachers are having sporadic issues with what they can access, its always worth checking that they haven't added themselves as a student.....

[chriscas · Accepted solution]

Hi @MartieSeaman,

Since you're already a Canvas admin, having a student role probably won't change much visually for you.  Here's what it will change for sure:

1. You'll have the course on your dashboard instead of having to search for it
2. You'll be able to submit assignments as yourself (not using the student view)
3. You'll be able to take quizzes as yourself (not using a preview or student view)

Other than that, the course will probably look very much like it does as an admin.  You'll see all of the menus, be able to edit things, and you'll see the full gradebook (assuming your admin role includes that).  Canvas essentially combines the permissions of all your roles together instead of having one override the other.

What a lot of schools will end up doing in a situation where a person is both an admin and a student is give an alternate identity/login to that person.  One login would be for their admin work, and another one just for the student work.  This way there is less blending together of the various roles.

Hope this helps!

-Chris

[PaulFynn · Accepted solution]

Just to add to @chriscas useful post, @MartieSeaman , do be aware that if you have dual roles in the same module you may get contention between them. For example as an Admin you probably have access to Speedgrader for all students, where as a student you only see your own.

So if you find that teachers are having sporadic issues with what they can access, its always worth checking that they haven't added themselves as a student.....

[mzimmerman · Accepted solution]

For users with an admin role (mostly on my team), we create a separate "admin" user account for them, distinct from the standard account based on their ID number (which would be the one that gets enrolled in any campus courses).