Flags to set "limit this user to only see fellow section users" on course enrollments

Hello,

Are there any user permissions or other flags or settings to set the course user privilege "limit this user to only see fellow section users". On the add people screen this can be set manually, but I am wondering if there is a way to set this globally for our automated SIS enrollment process, either in Canvas itself or in the script we use to populate and create our Canvas courses from Banner.

To give a little context, we are trying to avoid any FERPA violations when instructors cross-list their courses by limiting the exposure of student names across sections.

There look to be some scripts/tools to automate the cross-listing process that incorporate these controls...

-Greg

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Accepted answers

Chris

Hi @gncrum,

Assuming you are using a script that generates sis csv files which get imported into Canvas, you can have a limit_section_privileges column in the enrollments.csv file which you'd set to true for each student or faculty enrollment (depending on your desired outcome). The sis import format api documentation covers all of the options, including this one, if you're ever curious about what other things may be available.

Hope this helps!

-Chris

All comments

Chris

Hi @gncrum,

Hope this helps!

-Chris

TrinaAltman

@gncrum - One other thing to keep in mind even if you do "limit this user to only see fellow section users" (either in the UI or via SIS import) is that flag does limit many significant sources of exposure to student names from other sections for cross-listed courses (such as the list in the People tool), but not all. There are a few holes where students can still see student names from other sections, depending on the tools the instructor is using. I last tested this in spring 2022 (based on comments I found from others in Community over time) so it's possible some things have changed since then. Here are some places I confirmed they could still see students from other sections at that time:

Discussion posts
Group sets - even if the instructor selects 'Require group members to be in the same section '
Conversations: See names from other sections when viewing Teacher message that was sent to All Students; See names and send messages when replying to this message
The names of students who have edited pages (if Pages are set to be editable by students)

Trina

jsoares

I am an instructor and have been asked by admin to "limit this user to only see fellow section users" for all students of two sections that were merged into one canvas course. There are about 100 students in each section, so that requires to go to each student, open their user details, and change their status. This is even more burdensome for larger sections.

Is there a more efficient way to change the status of all students that are enrolled in the courses?

Thank you

Chris

Hi @jsoares,

I would say in most situations, changing this option would normally be done by an admin, either through an SIS import file or via some sort of API script. Every school/institution operates a bit differently though, and since it sounds like your admin asked you to do this yourself there must be a local reason for that. If you're. a programmer-type person, you could check out the Enrollments API, which is what you'd use to make this change, iterating through each user. Otherwise, as a teacher, I think your only other option is going through the UI, which I agree is tedious to accomplish this for 100 users.

-Chris

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