#  Manage Course Tool in Canvas - Updated Summer 2026 

 





HUIT updated the Manage Course tool in Canvas in July of 2026 and deprecated the previous version. While there has been improved functionality, there are also changes that impact previous user workflows.



 

September 01, 2026

 

 

 [ Paula Damigella ](/people/paula-damigella) 

HUIT has updated the Manage Course tool as of July 2026. This includes updated functionality, including a new user interface, which changes previous user workflows. Your role now dictates your level of access, and some of your prior functionality is now reserved to those people with Canvas admins roles.

Instructors, Faculty Coordinators, and Course Support Staff are still able access the Class Roster, Manage People, and Manage Sections. Teaching Fellows do not have access to these features.

Overall, the Manage Course tool's functionality is now more in line with Harvard policies. Changes include:

- Elimination of users holding multiple roles. 
    - Example: previously, TFs (Teaching Fellows) and students could be added manually, then enrolled via my.harvard. **This is no longer true**. If someone is going to be enrolled in the course via my.harvard, **please DO NOT manually enroll them**. They need to wait until they are processed via the Registrar, otherwise we may run into issues with their enrollment.
- Exclusion of everyone except Canvas administrators from being able to add people to concluded courses. Contact <canvas@gse.harvard.edu> if you need to add someone - or briefly un-conclude a course.
- Expansion to a more robust user interface, where the Manage People tool now includes User IDs and the source of a user's enrollment.

**Manage Course tool reminder**:

- If faculty want to have [someone audit their course](https://registrar.gse.harvard.edu/learning/policies-forms/auditing), there are two significant limitations: 
    - **In-person courses**: Auditors are permitted at the instructor’s discretion for in-person courses only.
    - **Active Harvard Community members**: Auditing is ordinarily limited to currently enrolled Harvard students, Harvard employees, and Harvard fellows. Individuals outside Harvard University, including HGSE alumni, may be permitted to audit courses with the instructor's permission and the Registrar's approval.
- Any documentation provided by Instructure (the company behind Canvas) about adding/removing users from a course site are not relevant to Harvard users.
- Users without an appropriate Harvard appointment cannot be added with staff or instructor roles; they can only be added with the Observer role.