Visibility

[BaileyHicks]

I created a new account and the course I am working on will not allow me to change the visibility to public. It says "If you need to make your course public please contact your administrator/support." I am the only person associated with this course and I should have an instructor role so assume I should be the administrator but can't figure out how to tell. Does anyone have tips for this?  Thanks

[chriscas]

Hi @BaileyHicks,

Even though you're the teacher, your Canvas admin team (usually in the eLearning / IT / Digital Education areas) may lock out certain settings like the "public" checkbox.  We lock that particular setting out at my institution because all students are required to officially register for our academic courses.  This may be similar at your school/institution, but we don't have specific information like that in here in the global community of Canvas users, so this is only a bit of a guess.

Hope this helps a bit!

-Chris

[BaileyHicks]

Yea this account I created is not associated with a school or institution which is why I'm confused.

[chriscas · Accepted solution]

Hi @BaileyHicks,

If you're using the free-for-teacher version of Canvas, it does appear that the visibility settings are locked down so that you have to specifically invite people to your course (the public/institution options are not available).  Although I can't find any documentation around this, I would guess it's an intentional setting to ensure Canvas is being used more for its primary purpose as a learning management system than becoming what some people could see as a free way to build a website or something along those lines.  I don't really think there will be a way around this other than using a different Canvas instance that would offer you more control (but that will likely come at a cost).  Are you able to tell us why you'd like to use the public option, as perhaps someone could offer an alternative.

-Chris