Introducing a View-Only Role for Instructors in the Parchment Digital Badges LTI

[DoraJekkel]

Dear Parchment Digital Badges Community,

Every term, instructors work hard to guide learners toward their goals, helping them earn badges, complete pathways, and celebrate progress.. Until now, giving instructors access to see that progress inside Canvas also meant giving them full control, including the ability to manage badges, pathways, or issuer settings.

Many institutions told us this was risky. You wanted instructors to stay informed, not burdened by permissions. So we built a solution that gives everyone peace of mind.

What’s Changing

Administrators can now enable a new View Only Role for instructors in the Parchment Digital Badges LTI integration within Canvas.

Once this role is turned on in Deployment Preferences, instructors can

• View course badges and learner progress
• Explore subscribed pathways
• Check leaderboards and notifications
  
  

They cannot make any changes to badge edits, issuer management, and pathway modifications are all disabled.

Previously, administrators could already limit instructor permissions through two settings:

• Allow instructors to create and modify badges
• Allow instructors to subscribe to pathways

These options are now grouped under a new Instructor Permissions section, along with the new  View Only setting for a simpler, more consistent experience. When View Only is enabled, it automatically disables those two permissions since View Only provides a stricter level of restriction. While View Only is active, the other permissions cannot be changed. Once View Only is turned off, administrators can again adjust the existing settings as needed.

Because this is a deployment level preference, you can decide exactly where it applies, whether at the root, sub account, or course level, depending on your integration level. Since it is part of the LTI integration, it affects only the Canvas experience and not the standalone Parchment Digital Badges product.

Why It Matters

Credentialing works best when everyone can see progress clearly. Administrators can now share visibility with instructors while keeping full control of badge and pathway management.

This change

• Reduces the risk of accidental edits or misconfigurations
• Makes it easier for faculty to stay involved in learner recognition
• Strengthens collaboration between teaching teams and administrators
• Builds trust in how digital badges are managed and displayed
  
  

By separating visibility from control, institutions can achieve greater transparency without compromising security.

What to Expect

The View Only Role will be available in the beta environment on November 10, followed by production release on November 17.

To turn it on

1. Open Deployment Preferences in Parchment Digital Badges.
2. Find the new option labeled “Instructors have view only access.”

1. Switch it on to automatically lock all instructor modification permissions.
2. If you later want instructors to edit again, turn the toggle off and adjust permissions as needed.

Instructors will immediately see learner achievements, pathways, and progress inside Canvas, but all editing tools will remain disabled.

With this update, transparency and control finally work together. Instructors gain a complete view of their learners’ progress, and administrators can relax knowing their credential settings are safe.

Here’s to more clarity, more collaboration, and fewer worries.

The Parchment Digital Badges Team