Embedded Slides Not Showing Up for Students

Question

Hello! I began embedding my daily slides into Canvas using the plug-in tool and choosing Google Apps. I then select the file. The first time I did this, I was required to log in to authorize the connection to Google. I did and I can see the slides. Unfortunately, about 50% of my students cannot. Canvas asks them to authorize but the process doesn't work and they either get an "authentication failed" or contact the manager of the Google Drive message.

I am confused. My students are logged into their Google Drive with the same email they use for Canvas. Google Drive is a registered service under in their account settings. Is there another step that they need to take in their Google account? Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Chris · Accepted Answer

Hi @MaliaWildman,

We run into similar issues at my institution, primarily with collaborations though.  In most cases the cause is the students being logged in to more than one google account, and google just not handling that well (in my opinion).  Our usual advice is for students running into this to log in to Canvas using a private/incognito browser window, and then log into google when prompted there.  That helps ensure they are only logged into their correct google account and no others at the same time.  I see this as much more of a google bug than anything Canvas/Instructure can fix, but others may see it differently.

I hope this info and the suggestion may help a little, even though I know it's not perfect.

-Chris

melodyc_lam · Accepted Answer

@MaliaWildman Like @chriscas says, this is a Google bug (not handling multiple google accounts well) rather than a Canvas bug.

Ensure that students are logged into ONE account (their school one) and not any other account and try doing this again.

You may have to delete the Google Drive service from their account settings AND delete the Canvas app from their Google 3rd party Apps and Services page and then start the connection process again to make it work. Ensure that when they do that connection again that they're logged in with their school account ONLY.