Inquiry on Course Sizes (Number of Enrolled Students)

[test29]

Hello Team,

We would like to understand how course sizes (i.e., the number of enrolled students per course) are tracked and reported within Canvas for customers. Specifically, we are looking for:

1. The best way to retrieve the number of students enrolled in a given course and their course data.

2. I have course which has approx. 10 k users and and my canvas sandbox  struggling to load data gradebook  .

3. How to manage such large user base .

Our goal is to better understand average course sizes and distribution across our institution.

Could you please guide us on the recommended method(s) for retrieving this data?

Thank you

[ngarimella1]

Hello @test29 , 

These are great questions when managing and running large enrollment courses. I wanted to share some previous posts on this topic:
Best Practices for Large Courses in Canvas where Jess Jones highly recommends Sections as a way of managing large enrollments 
Large Courses by Princeton University which has links to additional resources


To retrieve the number of student enrollments, go to Settings, click on the Sections tab. Every course automatically has at least 1 section. You should see the number of active enrollments and pending enrollments (if you are manually enrolling users who will be sent course invitations that have to be accepted). 

If you are in a paid version of Canvas, earlier this year, we release an Improved Speedgrader Experience feature option that can be enabled at the account level by a Canvas admin. This feature is "Modernized SpeedGrader Platform enhances performance for a faster, smoother experience for users handling larger courses or complex assignments. Upgrading the backend technology improves SpeedGrader's ability to manage high-demand tasks more efficiently and reliably."

Hope these ideas help with managing your large course. Have a great class. 

[test29]

Thanks ,

Could you please confirm the maximum number of users that can be enrolled in a single Canvas course?

• Is there a documented technical limit on course enrollment size?

• If not, what is the largest course size currently supported/recommended in production?

• Are there known performance issues when courses exceed a certain threshold (e.g., 5,000+ users)?

We are building an LTI tool and need to understand the maximum possible enrollment size in order to design and test for scale appropriately.

Thank you for your guidance

[ngarimella1 · Accepted solution]

@test29 there is no set limit on the course enrollment size. The experience depends on the kinds of content in the course that impacts course size, number of assessments, assessments you are utilizing; are you having students complete assignments within a small window or time, etc. 

As these increase, users may experience lags in the content loading, gradebook refresh times, saving time etc. The strategies listed in the above links (and other links from within them) elaborate on there. 

Do reach out to your Customer Success Manager so that they can work with you to help optimize student, teacher and admin experience.