how can i disable notifications for observers (parents) globally in Canvas?

[greg_dabelstein]

Hi all

How can I disable notifications globally for observers? We recently implemented parents as observers of their sons' courses but it has become apparent that all notifications are sent to the parents as well - some are getting many emails. I don't believe there is a way to do this and, as a result, and we are probably going to have to 'can it' to prevent a PR issue.

I must admit that I couldn't' see any warning about this at this link which explains it. What is the Observer role? - Instructure Community (canvaslms.com) - Can I suggest Canvas makes a comment here indicating as much.

Can anyone suggest a solution that might be possible to allow parents the ability to peruse/access their sons courses but set the notification by default to 'never'??

I found this link but the script didn't appear to change the notification settings (even though it appeared to run) canvas/update_observers_notification_preferences.py at master · mbwatson/canvas · GitHub

Any help is appreciated.

regards

Greg

[KristinL · Accepted solution]

Hi @greg_dabelstein -

While I don't have an immediate answer to offer, I can share that you're not alone with this request. This idea was initially proposed in September 2020:

Customize default settings for notifications / hid... - Instructure Community  

Would the Observers open an email regarding their account? When I was a Canvas Admin, I created support documents specifically for our Observers, and one of the things we featured was notification settings. Would families at your school be open to that kind of collaboration?

I hope that someone with more experience with custom scripts can help you fine-tune what you found in GitHub or offer other options for you soon. 🙂