Trust Account User Roles and Expectations
About Trust Accounts
A trust relationship allows one Canvas account to trust another Canvas account and allows users to be enrolled in both places. Instead of creating two separate accounts and merging them together, a trust relationship allows separate Canvas accounts to share user identities, so a user can log in to one account and access courses from both accounts.
To establish a trust between two or more accounts, the Canvas Operations team configures a trust setting, which is stored in the Canvas code. The Canvas interface never shows that a trust relationship is present. Trusts can be established between multiple accounts.
Trusted Canvas instances display as an authentication provider option.Learn more about configuring trusted Canvas instance authentication.
The following behaviors do not apply to trust accounts:
- Trusts do not show any information in the UI/GUI indicating you in a trust with another school or that the course you are enrolled in is at another school.
- Trusts do not provide any data or a summation of which users are in a trust enrollment at another school.
- The Canvas interface does not show provided trust data. The trust is simply an invisible link that exists between two or more sites.
- User lists from one school cannot be browsed from another school. Admins from both schools will need to work out a business process to send enrollments from one school to the other.
- Trusts do not provide any automation for trust enrollments. Users are enrolled via CSV uploads or via the API.
- Users enrolled in courses at other schools are only able to see the name of the course they are enrolled in. They cannot view any information in the interface that shows the course is located at another school.
For questions about trust accounts, please contact your Customer Success Manager.
Definitions
|
User |
A person with a login and user profile in at least one Canvas account. With multiple Canvas accounts, the person has a separate login and user profile for each account. However, the login and profile may contain identical information, such as the same email address used as login credentials. |
| Merged User | A user with multiple Canvas accounts merged together to use one profile. For each Canvas account, the user’s login may be unified by a central authentication system or retained individually through Canvas authentication. |
| Login | A username and password tied to a specific Canvas account used for login credentials. A login must be unique to a user and is required to authenticate a specific Canvas account. However, a user may have the same username (such as an email address) or password as login credentials for multiple accounts. |
| Trust Link | A virtual link between two Canvas accounts. The trust link goes in one direction from one canvas account to another. However, the interface does not indicate a trust is present. |
| Canvas Account | A Canvas configuration with a unique URL (i.e. institution.instructure.com). For the purpose of trusts, Canvas accounts do not refer to subaccounts. |
| Integration ID | A secondary identifier useful for more complex SIS integrations. An integration ID can be used for a user without affecting the user’s SIS ID. |
User Roles and Expectations
The tables below indicate intended behaviors regarding various activities and user roles for trust accounts.
✔️ indicates the behavior is supported
✔️* indicates the behavior is supported with caveats as explained in the table
✖️ indicates the behavior is not supported
Student
|
User with at least 1 enrollment across trust |
Merged user with at least 1 enrollment across trust |
|
| View Courses in Dashboard across Trust | ✔️ | ✔️ |
| View Courses in Mobile Device across Trust | ✔️ | ✔️ |
| View Course To Do List items across Trust | ✖️ | ✖️ |
| View Files in Mobile Devices across Trust | ✔️ | ✔️ |
| View Calendar across Trust | ✖️ |
✔️* Not shown in mobile, but events can be viewed within individual courses |
| View Conversations across Trust | ✔️ | ✔️ |
| Message Users across Trust | ✔️ | ✔️ |
| View Branding across Trust |
✔️* Displays home account branding; accessing a course in the trusted account shows trust branding |
✔️* Displays branding within account login URL |
| View User Settings across Trust | ✔️ | ✔️ |
| View ePortfolio Attachments across Trust | ✔️ | ✔️ |
| View Push Notifications across Trust | ✖️ | ✖️ |
| Supports Secondary Login (Pseudonym) | ✖️ | ✔️ |
Notes:
- Creating a student in both accounts with the same integration ID does not generate a prompt to merge the student.
- When the student is merged within an individual account, neither account was made the home or deleted account.
Instructor
|
User with at least 1 enrollment across trust |
Merged user with at least 1 enrollment across trust | |
| View Courses in Dashboard across Trust | ✔️ | ✔️ |
| View Courses in Mobile Device across Trust | ✔️ | ✔️ |
| View Files in Mobile Devices across Trust | ✔️ | ✔️ |
| View Calendar across Trust | ✖️ |
✔️* Not shown in mobile, but events can be viewed within individual courses |
| View Conversations across Trust | ✔️ | ✔️ |
| Message Users across Trust | ✔️ | ✔️ |
| View Branding across Trust |
✔️* Displays home account branding; accessing a course in the trusted account shows trust branding |
✔️* Displays branding within account login URL |
| View User Settings across Trust | ✔️ | ✔️ |
| View ePortfolio Attachments across Trust | ✔️ | ✔️ |
| View Push Notifications across Trust | ✖️ | ✖️ |
| View Account-Level Outcomes | ✖️ | ✔️ |
| View Rubrics across Trust | ✔️ | ✔️ |
| Supports Secondary Login (Pseudonym) | ✖️ | ✔️ |
Admin
|
Home Account |
Secondary Account |
|
|
View Provisioning Report—Enrollments CSV |
✔️* View enrollments for courses located within account login URL, including users that have been merged to secondary account |
✔️* View enrollments for courses located within account login URL, including users that have been merged to home account |
| View Provisioning Report—Users CSV |
✔️* View user data for students merged to secondary account if a student still has one enrollment in the secondary account |
✔️* View user data for students merged to home account if a student still has one enrollment in the home account |
| View Page Views |
✔️* View page views for all accounts, except for submission details |
✔️* View page views for all accounts, except for submission details
Cannot view trusted course from home account |
| View Courses across Trust Accounts | ✖️ | ✖️ |
| View User Details |
✔️* Can view users merged to another account if they are still enrolled in a course in the account |
✔️* Can view users merged to another account if they are still enrolled in a course in the account |
| View Course & Student Analytics for Merged Users | ✔️ | ✔️ |
| Supports Secondary Login (Pseudonym) | ✖️ | ✔️ |
Logins CSV
The logins.csv can often be used in trust accounts, especially when cross-listing or merging users. This section includes notes for successful usage for the logins.csv within trust accounts.
- The root_account field is required when cross-listing users across accounts within a trust account.
- The integration_id should be left blank when merging users that have matching integration IDs.
