#  Access & People Management 

 



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## How do people join Canvas sites?

Everyone with a HarvardKey, including alumni, can access Canvas. There are two means by which access to particular Canvas sites are granted: automatically, via synchronization with the course database in my.harvard; manually, via the Manage Course tool which instructional team members have access to.

### Faculty, Faculty Coordinators, and TA/TFs

The assigned faculty, faculty coordinator, and TA/TFs, are added to Canvas sites via my.harvard. They **must not be added manually**. To do so is a FERPA violation.

You **must not add your TA/TF to your Canvas site manually**. This is a serious offense. If you wish to chase up their addition to the Canvas site, please contact HR: they are responsible for this process and ultimately add TA/TFs to my.harvard, which then syncs to Canvas.

### Students Enrolled for Credit

Students enrolled for credit will automatically be added to the Canvas site via the synchronization with my.harvard. **Enrolled students must not be added manually**.

### Learning Designers; Program Staff

Full-time employees of GSE can be added to a Canvas site via the Manage Course tool with a business reason for being on the site.

### Auditors at GSE

Consult the [official auditing policy](https://registrar.gse.harvard.edu/auditing).

Auditors *must not* be added manually via the Manage Course tool. They must submit a form to the registrar, available on the official auditing policy page.

### Guest Faculty and Speakers

**GSE Faculty** may be added as **Guests** to a Canvas site at the teaching team's request.

**External faculty and speakers** may only be added as **Observers** for the duration of their time spent with the class. For example, if a guest faculty speaker joins the class for one week, they should be added when the request is received, and then removed immediately after their duties end.

### Other Cases

Please consult the course's faculty coordinator or the instructional technology team for guidance on Canvas access in other cases. Do not go ahead and add people manually without being sure of the appropriate policy and role.

## Course Visibility

This setting determines who can view the course site, if/when the site is published. The options for this setting are Public, Institutional (everyone with a HarvardKey), and Course. There is also an additional setting for the syllabus, if one desired the syllabus page to have a different visibility setting to the rest of the course site.

This setting is usually changed by the Faculty Coordinator during the Course Preview session. The site should be set as Institutional during course previews so students can access course preview materials without being enrolled in the course. Once course previews are over, visibility should be set to Course. Visibility should not be set to Public except in special circumstances as this raises accessibility and privacy issues that must be satisfied for public viewing.