Learning Management System
Texas A&M University Texas A&M University Logo

Course-Level Roles

This section includes course-level details related to Canvas roles, enrollment processes, permissions, and other relevant information.

Course Teaching & Learning Roles

All course teaching and learning roles are automatically populated through Banner. The LMS Support teams cannot add any of these roles directly to an academic course as they are managed and updated through data feeds. For questions related to teaching roles, please contact your department scheduler.

Teacher

  • Instructor for an academic course
  • Enrollment: SSASECT Banner Table with primary indicator checked (only one possible for a course)

Alternate Teacher

  • Secondary instructor for a course and enrolled in a section as indicated from Compass
  • Enrollment: SSASECT Banner Table (LMS Alternate Teacher) with primary indicator not checked

Student

  • Individual student for an academic course and enrolled in a section
  • Enrollment: SFRSTCR Banner Table
Course Associate Roles

All course associate roles are either automatically populated through Compass if assigned by the department scheduler or can be assigned via ORCA (except for Grade Submitter or Librarian). These roles are required to complete training prior to obtaining access to the courses they are assigned to in Canvas. Additional information on how to enroll course associate roles and the training requirements are listed below.

Teaching Assistant

  • Individual acting as a teaching assistant working with the teacher within a course and responsible for content, features, tools, and/or grades
  • Enrollment: SWASECT Banner Table (LMS Teaching Assistant - AC_TA) or ORCA

Lead Teaching Assistant

  • Individual acting as Lead TA responsible for managing groups of TAs across courses and sections
  • Enrollment: SWASECT Banner Table (LMS Lead Teaching Assistant - AC_LT) or ORCA

Course Designer

  • Individual that provides specific course design, accessibility requirements, navigation, and creation of digital content (audio & video files) for a course within the Learning Management System (LMS)
  • Enrollment: SWASECT Banner Table (LMS Course Designer - AC_CD) or ORCA

Enhanced Course Designer

  • Course designer permissions with ability to see course users and gradebook (FERPA considerations)
  • Enrollment: ORCA only

Grader

  • Individual that provides grading for all course assignments, assessments, and other projects within the course
  • Enrollment: SWASECT Banner Table (LMS Grader - AC_LG) or ORCA

Grade Submitter

  • Individual that can submit final academic course grades from the LMS to Howdy
  • Enrollment: SWASECT Banner Table (Final Grade Submissions - AC_GR) (not available in ORCA)

Librarian

  • Individual in a course that manages library resources
  • Enrollment: SWASECT Banner Table (LMS Librarian - AC_LB) (not available in ORCA)

 

Course Observer Roles

All course observer roles are either automatically populated through Compass if assigned by the department scheduler. Learning Assistant is the only observer role that can also be assigned via ORCA. Each role can view 1) course content, 2) course announcements, 3) discussion posts (FERPA consideration). Additionally, each role may have further granular permissions as noted in each section below.

Faculty Peer Evaluator

  • Individual enrolled to observer course instructor for tenure or promotion, or for a quality assurance program to evaluate online course quality
  • Enrollment: SWASECT Banner Table (LMS Peer Evaluation - AC_PE) 
  • Additional Permissions: None

Student Peer Mentor

  • Individuals enrolled into a course by the Academic Success Center to act as Peer Mentors associated with students in a course
  • Enrollment: SWASECT Banner Table (LMS Student Mentor - AC_SM)
  • Additional Permissions: 1) Send messages to individuals, 2) Edit course calendar, 3) Post in discussions

Transcriber

  • Individual enrolled into a course to assist disabled students that have filed for an accommodation through the Department of Disability Resources
  • Enrollment: SWASECT Banner Table (LMS Transcriber - AC_TS)
  • Additional Permissions: None

Visiting Student

  • Student enrolled into a current-semester course to observe current content, course structure, and third-party tools (note: use of this role should align with Student Rule 2.1)
  • Enrollment: SWASECT Banner Table (LMS Visiting Student - AC_VS)
  • Additional Permissions: 1) View all student groups, 2) View all users, 3) View user email addresses

Learning Assistant

  • Individual that can support students permissions limited to course communication and viewing content (e.g., Supplemental Instruction)
  • Enrollment: SWASECT Banner Table (LMS Learning Assistant - AC_LA) or ORCA
  • Additional Permissions: 1) Send messages to entire course, 2) Send messages to individuals, 3) Post in disucssions, 4) View all student groups, 5) View all users, 6) View user email addresses
Student Observer Roles

Student Observer Role and Permissions

The Student Observer role at TAMU allows for the ability to pair a Student Observer with an assigned student in a course in Canvas. The Student Observer role will have read-only access to courses, meaning they cannot change or edit any course content, submit work, or complete quizzes and exams. Student Observers are restricted from viewing data for other students enrolled in the class except in grouped assignments, peer reviews, and third-party tools.

Student Observers are visible to teachers in Canvas. They will appear in the People section of a course in Canvas and list their paired students. If there are no students participating in programs that required Student Observers to be enrolled in your course(s), no Student Observers will be added.

  • Canvas Permissions: View course content, activities, and announcements as well as grades and assignments for any assigned students
    • Student Observers can also send/receive messages in the Inbox feature, but cannot see any direct messages to their assigned student(s)
  • Enterprise Tool Permissions: 
    • Gradescope and Mediasite: Accessed as themselves in a Student role; can submit assignments on their own behalf, but not for the student(s)
    • Peerceptiv and Perusall: Accessed as themselves in a Student role; can submit assignments on their own behalf, but not for the student(s); ability to view other student submissions as part of the peer review process
    • Zoom: Can watch linked Zoom recordings

Student Observer Role Opt In Process

The Student Observer Role Opt In Process can be accessed through ORCA. This process will allow Instructors of Record that are assigned to teach course sections with students that require an individual to be assigned to observe them the ability to update their preferences for the specified term.

Only the Instructor of Record has the ability to update their preferences for the process. The process is available for a 7-day window following the add/drop deadline of each term. During this window, instructors will have the ability to view students with their assigned observer and update their preferences. After the window is closed, the individuals will be enrolled in the course sections with the Student Observer role. After the window is closed, any changes will need to route to LMS Support.

During the Opt In Window, Instructors can follow these steps to review students and their assigned observer:  
  1. Navigate and login to ORCA with TAMU NetID and password. 
  2. Upon first logging in, a message will appear prompting to review assigned observer and the students they are assigned to in your assigned course sections. Click Review. 

    • After the instructor has viewed the Review page once, the popup message will disappear for the remainder of the semester. To view the preferences made, from ORCA, navigate to the user’s NetID that displays on the top right and then select User Settings. If Dismiss is selected, a warning message will appear confirming if you would like to dismiss the message. This message will then be dismissed for the remainder of the opt in window until the following semester. By default, if no action is taken, Instructors will be opted out of the process. 

  3. The Opt In page will display the following: 

    • Options to opt in or opt out to the process 

    • Table with course sections Instructors are assigned to teach

    • Drilldown menu to display student(s) and their assigned observer 

  4. To opt-in to the process, select Yes. To opt-out of the process, select No. On the bottom of the table with the course section information, click Save. 
  5. The date when the preference was last updated will appear to the right of the Yes or No buttons. 
After the instructor has viewed the Review page once, the popup message will disappear for the remainder of the semester. To view the preferences made, from ORCA, navigate to the user’s NetID that displays on the top right and then select User Settings. 

An email will be sent to the Instructor confirming the opt in or opt out preference.   

What Happens if I Opt In?

If you select Yes, you have selected to opt in to the Student Observer Role Process and the assigned observers will be enrolled as Student Observers in your course section(s). Student Observers will have read-only access to view course content, syllabus, assignment details, and grades of the assigned student. Additional information on what a Student Observer can and cannot do in courses in Canvas can be viewed on the Student Observer Permissions section.  

 

Opt-In Communication Timeline

  1. Day 1 - Opt-in period begins: Notification email sent by CTE via ORCA after the Add/Drop deadline concludes
  2. Day 5 - 36-hour reminder of deadline: Scheduled reminder email sent by ORCA 
  3. Day 7 - Opt-in period ends
  4. Day 8 - Notification email sent by CTE via ORCA after the opt-in deadline for 1) no action/default opt out, 2) hard opt out, 3) opt in

Please click on the image for a higher-resolution image.

What Happens if I Opt Out? 

If you select No, you have selected to opt out of the Student Observer Role Process and the assigned observers will not be enrolled in your course section(s). 

If you teach a course that includes a student-athlete, this also means that the Athletics Department will request multiple updates throughout the semester on the academic status of these athletes. This is to ensure NCAA compliance. These requests will be sent via progress reports along with individual emails, and will ask for information such as: class attendance, current grades, and remaining assignments. Additional information can be viewed on the Athletics Department Student-Athlete Program page. 

Community Roles

This section includes Community roles, enrollment processes, and permissions. More information about Communities is available in the LMS ORCA page.

Community Roles & Permissions

Communities in Canvas are non-academic course shells that are not associated with course sections maintained by the Office of the Registrar and do not have a connection to Compass, so the process for managing enrollments will be carried out through ORCA. Once your Community has been created, it will have the appropriate community template applied.

Leader

  • Primary instructor role for a community

Co-Leader

  • Secondary instructor role for a community

Evaluator

  • Grading role within a community
  • Limited Permissions: 1) View content, 2) View discussions, 3) View/edit grades, 4) Create/edit/update pages

Participant

  • Effectively a Canvas student role

Account-Level Roles

This section includes information about account-level roles and they cannot be added at the individual course level. These roles have enhanced permissions in the Digital Learning Environment and are not broadly available, requiring dean-level approvals.

Account-Level Roles

Given the level of system access, FERPA and ISA training will need ​to be recertified every year as ​part of the annual elevated roles/permissions audit.

Academic Liaison and Manager Roles 

  • Academic Liaisons (or AL for short) provide support for each college/school/branch campus (limited to 2) and are important participants in the learning management system governance. The group became self-governing starting in Fall 2023 and in addition to regular AL meetings, attends other relevant digital learning environment meetings, trainings, and educational development opportunities. In addition to serving as a key communication point with the Canvas Operations teams, your Academic Liaison can assist you troubleshooting issues with Canvas tools and features including multimedia solution, applying online course design and facilitation best practices, and assisting with content import and course combination.

    Starting in August 2024, there are three new account level roles: departmental manager, college/school manager, interdisciplinary manager. These roles have mirrored permissions to Academic Liaisons in Canvas and ORCA, but are not including the AL community or LMS governance. New manager requests must be initiated by Academic Liaisons and require Dean approval.

  • Permissions Overview: significant ability to view and/or edit course content, activities, grades, users, settings, and reports/analytics in order to better support those that the roles serve

Dean Viewer

  • The Dean Viewer role was implemented December 2023 and provides administrators with view access for course content. This role must be initiated by Academic Liaisons and requires Dean approval.
  • Limited Permissions: 1) View course content, 2) View course list, 3) View SIS ID information

Mediasite Roles

This section highlights the roles and permissions within the Canvas-Mediasite integration.

Mediasite Roles

Mediasite allows instructors the ability to record, upload, share, and view video content in any Canvas course. The combined power of Canvas with Mediasite means all your videos have a central secure home benefiting from Mediasite’s in-video search, engagement tools, and viewership stats. To learn more about Mediasite, visit the tools page. Permissions are assigned to each type of role in Mediasite.

Teacher 

  • Instructor for a course

  • Permissions: MyMediasite Portal, Presentation - Add/Edit/Delete, Presentations - Edit

Mediasite Liaison

  • Individual within the School/College who regularly supports faculty and staff with academic technology and/or instructional design needs
  • Permissions: Teacher permissions + Mediasite Management Portal and Shared Folders within College/School-  Add/Edit 
    • Note: the Mediasite Management Portal cannot be accessed within the LMS