Hi Chris, thanks for this. Just got back from a couple of weeks annual leave so my head is a bit foggy but what you suggest is definitely part of the solution and a possible consideration of the problem too. My initial aim was to put in a request to our IT for a new role (when we got Canvas we wanted to bring in a new VLE allowing us to provide lots of alternative forms of teaching and engagement like this) but when I started to look into it a bit further I wondered if the permissions available would afford us what we need.
I think this would definitely require a new Canvas course - a hangover from Blackboard here is calling them 'pseudo courses', but essentially an adhoc created Canvas course, away from our normal academic module (course) creation process, generally sitting outside of normal taught courses - so no risk of assessed work. But with having such a space and with some students enrolled as teachers, and other students as students, my colleague who was working on this idea also saw that those student-teachers would have access to the People area and this would also reveal potentially sensitive info about the student cohort.
So the backup option that we've used previously is having a 'prototyping/staging' version of the course where the students-teachers will develop the content and then this is then transported into a final course where they are students. We'd probably go with this but it feels a bit one step removed for students, also we'd like them to be able to co-ordinate activities if they want to (no reason why they may need elevated permissions to be a leader in a discussion board activity though!).
I'll try to map out what we need and see how far is achievable with the current setup, a possible process, but it would also be good to think about what the ideal solution could look like. It's good to mull things over a bit, thanks for getting back to me! I'll post back what I come up with.
Best, Will
