Is there a way to 'hide' a student that is no longer attending the course so that they don't receive announcements, canvas notifications, or have their grade affect the overall course average? UVU will not allow us to remove students from Canvas... presumably so that at the end of the semester they can make sure that they got properly paid.
If there is not a way to do this, then this is yet another simple request that I want to make as a real world user of your product instead of a real world tolerator of your product.
Hi Craig. Different institutions have various policies when it comes to how students who drop courses are dealt with within Canvas. There is a Canvas enrollment status called "inactive". This document explains the limitations on a student who is inactive, https://s3.amazonaws.com/tr-learncanvas/docs/CanvasEnrollmentStatusComparison.pdf, and this page how to mark a student as inactive, How do I deactivate an enrollment in a course?.
As the second document indicates,
Note: Enrollments may be added by your institution's student information system (SIS). If an enrollment includes an SIS ID, you cannot deactivate an enrollment from the course. Additionally, deactivating enrollments is a course permission. If you cannot deactivate enrollments in your course, your institution has restricted this feature.
If the inactive status seems like it would fit your needs but is not available, you might check with the Canvas Support group or IT at your institution and get their feedback on how to best deal with students who drop courses based on the way your Canvas instance is set up. There may be others here who have suggestions as well.
I hope this helps!