Enrollment and Access

Access to an academic or noncredit Canvas course requires an active enrollment in the course. For student access to a Canvas course, the course must be published and the current date must be between the course start and end dates.

To safeguard data integrity, ensure Canvas and ARIESweb enrollments are synchronized, and to protect/respect faculty creative works rights, CSU utilizes the following enrollment procedures:

  • Student and Teacher enrollments are systemically added daily to Canvas from ARIESweb
  • Teachers can manually enroll Asst. Teachers, TA’s, Designers, and Observers. Please do not add someone as a Teacher.
  • If a Teacher cannot perform the manual enrollment themselves, a Canvas Coordinator or administrator, with the permission of the Teacher or Department Chair, can add an enrollment.
  • Daily Update Schedule For Enrollments

    Student enrollment add/drops and Teacher assignments are updated from ARIESweb to Canvas based on the following schedule.

    Monday – Saturday~6:10 a.m., 12:10 p.m., 4:10 p.m.
    Sunday~1:30 p.m., 6:30 p.m.

  • Users and Enrollments in Canvas Require Active NetID

    Users must have an active CSU NetID account to be enrolled in an academic Canvas course.

    When a user’s NetID expires, the user account and their enrollments are removed from Canvas.

    Note: When faculty and staff leave CSU, the employment end date in the HR system closes their access to ARIESweb and Canvas. Please allow time for faculty to complete grading and submit final grades before their end date.

    RoleCanvas Enrollment Removed
    Student365 days after student’s last class
    Faculty, Staff, AssociateThe day after employee’s separation from CSU or the Appointment End Date.
    For faculty, please set their end date so it allows time for submitting final grades.

  • Student Enrollments

    Students wishing to take a CSU course for academic credit must register in RAMweb. Students enrollments are automatically added to Canvas within 12 hours.

    Instructors, please DO NOT add Students to a Canvas course unless:

  • Teacher vs. Assistant Teacher, Designer, TA Enrollments

    All teaching assignments entered into CSU’s Student Information System, ARIESweb, are systematically enrolled in Canvas as a Teacher. Instructors can expect to see their courses in Canvas within 24 hours of a teaching assignment being entered into ARIESweb, by their Department Scheduler(via SCAIT).

    To help students to distinguish between Teachers and assistants, manually enroll your support users as an Assistant Teacher, Designer, or a TA.

  • Role Permissions

    In Canvas, these roles have the following permissions:

    Note:To ensure Canvas and ARIESweb enrollments are synchronized, please do not add users as a Teacher in Canvas.

    RoleContentEdit New QuizzesCopy content to other coursesGradesInteract with studentsEnroll users
    TeacherEditXXManageXX
    Assistant TeacherEditXXManageX
    Designer - NewQuizzesEditXXEmail students
    DesignerEditXEmail students
    Teaching Assistant (TA)ViewManageEmail students
    Create Announcements
    Create Discussions
    Enter comments on assignments
    Program SupportEditView
    Learning AssistantViewEmail students
    View Announcements
    View Discussions
    ObserverViewView observed student's
    StudentViewView their ownX

  • Manually Enroll Others

    Note:To ensure Canvas and ARIESweb enrollments are synchronized, please do not add users as a Teacher in Canvas.

    For Current or Future Courses

    In the course navigation click on People. On the People page, click the +People button, select NetID on the top of the window, enter the user’s NetID, choose their role, and then click Next.

    Verify the user and role, then click Add User.

    The user will receive an invitation email to accept the role in the course.

    For Previous Courses

    These steps are to add non-students, excluding Teachers, into a previous semester’s course. To add students into a previous semester’s course, see the Student Incompletes section.

    To add non-students to a previous semester course, the course end date must be updated, then set back to the original date to stay consistent with student access to previous semester courses.

    • In the course navigation, click the Settings link
    • Under Participation, edit the End date to be a future date
      • Take note of the original date as the date will need to be changed back after adding users
        taking note of original date
    • Click on the Update Course Details button in the lower right corner of the page.
    • In the course navigation, click the People link
      adding people
    • Click the + People button
    • Select NetID option, then enter in the user’s NetID
      selecting NetID
    • Select the appropriate role (not as a Teacher or Student), choose the appropriate section, then click the Next button
      choosing a role
    • Confirm the users being added to the course then click the Add Users button
      confirm users
    • In the course navigation, click the Settings link
    • Under Participation, edit the End date to the original date
      back to original date
    • Click on the Update Course Details button in the lower right corner of the page

  • Section Privileges

    When a TA is added to a course, an Instructor is able to change the section privileges of the TA to be able to grade only their assigned section.

  • Students Incompletes

    Students who are finishing a grade incomplete must be manually enrolled by following the steps on the Extended Course Access webpage.

  • View Student Activity for Financial Aid

    Use these steps to help determine the last date of academic participation for a financial aid recipient using Canvas activity.

    Option 1. Student is listed in Prior Enrollments

    1. In your Canvas course, click People, then click the More Options icon (3 vertical dots) on the top right to select “View Prior Enrollments”Prior Enrollments
    2. Click the student’s name, and use the links under More About This User to view activity

    Option 2. Student is not listed in Prior Enrollments.

    1. Login with your NetID at Re-enroll My Student.
    2. Complete the three fields, and click Re-enroll Student.
    3. Click the new link to see the student in your Canvas course, and use the links under More About This User to view activity.

    To enter the last participation date, follow the instructions at Office of Financial Aid for Enrollment Verification.

  • Visitor Enrollments

    Instructors can provide temporary visitor access to a Canvas course for users without a CSU NetID.

    • For visitor access less than 30 days, such as a guest lecturer, use a Visitor Account. Contact your college/area Canvas Coordinator for details.
    • For visitor access 30 days or longer, your department must sponsor the user for a CSU Associate NetID account:
      1. Work with your department HR staff to sponsor the associate. See Unit 12 of CSU’s HR Guide.
      2. The associate activates the NetID account.
      3. Add the associate’s NetID into the Canvas course: People > +People >Enter the NetID and role > submit.

  • Student Athlete Support Services

    Student-Athlete Support Services uses Canvas Observer Role for Academic Success

  • Senior Citizen Enrollments

    Per CSU’s Senior Citizen Visitation Privilege, citizens age 55 and older may visit Colorado State University resident instruction classes on a space-available basis at no cost.

    Adding Senior Citizens to Canvas

    If the instructor uses Canvas, the senior citizen can have access to the course in Canvas by following these steps:

    1. The senior citizen gets permission from the instructor and completes the Senior Citizen Class Visitation Request Form on the Registrar’s Lifelong Learners website.
    2. The instructor/department sponsors the senior citizen as an associate to get a NetID. The department HR staff then creates an Associate account for the citizen. Associate HR Info
    3. The citizen goes to https://netid.colostate.edu/ to activate their NetID.
    4. The instructor manually adds the citizen’s NetID as a student in the Canvas course:
      1. In your Canvas course > People > + People > enter the eName, select Student role and section > Next > Add Users > Done.
      2. This will send an email to the senior citizen, inviting them to the class, with a link to Canvas.