[Calendars] Instructors Viewing Student Calendars

[kelli_robinson]

We would like to request for there to be a way for instructors to view the calendars for students in their courses other than with the Act as User permission. This would allow instructors to assist student in pacing their schedule for multiple classes. Currently, the only way for someone to be able to Act as User is from the admin role at the org or sub org level. This would create a security issue in our instance of Canvas to provide that access to all instructors.

[valerie_bentley]

Great request, Kelli!  I agree that the feature is needed for schools providing instruction to students enrolled in multiple courses. 

If it is not possible to grant Kelli's calendar request, is it possible to create a calendar report that can be accessed via New Analytics?  The calendar report would permit teachers to view multiple calendar details for students.

[KristinL]

Hi @kelli_robinson and @valerie_bentley  -

This sounds like it would be helpful in very specific situations. While the thread is being marked as Open, I have concerns about permissions and privacy. 

In some ways, it sounds like you'd like an Observer's ability to see all calendars for each student, but that would be complicated to establish for every student. However, if a student could share their calendar with you, they'd have to do so for each calendar they interact with.

I look forward to seeing how this conversation develops.

[TiffanyStull]

As @KristinL mentioned, it would be inappropriate to expose students' calendars to instructors for privacy reasons.  Students can add their own events to their calendars.  They may include details of sensitive items that should not be revealed to others (e.g., the description and location of a doctor's appointment).

Perhaps an external tool (e.g., Outlook or Google Calendar) could be leveraged for the calendar sharing use case.  For example, asking students to subscribe to their Canvas calendar from Outlook, and then share their "busy" indicators with their instructors in Outlook.

[valerie_bentley]

Thanks for your recommendation, Tiffany! 

[ProductPanda]

Comments from Instructure

As part of the new Ideas & Themes process, all ideas in Idea Conversations were reviewed by the Product Team. Any Idea that was associated with an identified theme was moved to the new Idea & Themes space. Any Idea that was not part of the move is being marked as Archived. This will preserve the history of the conversations while also letting Community members know that Instructure will not explore the request at this time.