Inviting educators outside school district

Question

How can I invite fellow colleagues who are also teaching AP African American Studies.  Tried on "people" page for the course but could not find them.

NoahBoswell · Accepted Answer

Hi @jonathanmerrill !

Thank you for posting on the Instructure Community!

Since your course is connected to your school district's canvas instance, these users would need to have accounts that are enrolled with your school's Canvas instance. From there, using the People page, invite them using their email associated with their account, or their Login ID or by using whatever else is provided to you in order for them to be added to your course. Upon adding them, they will accept the invite and will be able to start teaching in your Canvas course.

Hope this helps, always feel free to reach back out with any additional questions!

Best,
Noah

JeffCampbell · Accepted Answer

To add to what @NoahBoswell mentioned, if they are outside your district, your options are limited since they won't be able to join your course. The two options I might recommend are A: to share it with them directly, either by Canvas Commons or sending them an exported file. Or B: set up a Free For Teachers Canvas account. You can do that here: https://www.instructure.com/try-canvas

For the Canvas Commons option, it is not a great way to collaborate as you would all be working on your own, but it would get them the course to start with. If you want to collaborate together in Canvas, then the latter option might be the way to go. Each of you would need to create an account, so now you have two accounts (make sure you are in the correct one when dealing with your student course). Then you would be able to all join into the same course. You could export your copy of the AP African Studies and import into the FFT course to all collaborate together.

dbrace · Accepted Answer

Hi @jonathanmerrill,

I think we need a little information before we can help you, so I have a question and then some options to consider.

Are your fellow colleagues faculty at your institution or are they "guests" that are not faculty at your institution?

If your fellow colleagues are faculty at your institution, you might need to ask your Canvas admins to either (a) create a Canvas user account for them or (b) add them to the course for you because you might not have permission to.

If your fellow colleagues are not faculty at your institution, I would recommend that you contact your Canvas admins to find out if your institution allows "guest" user accounts. If they allow "guest" user accounts, if student privacy is a concern (and it should be), you could work together in a sandbox or development course (the name used can vary by institution) instead of a course where students will be.

If using a sandbox/development course, when finished, you could import the content/design into your own course and your fellow colleagues could export the course out of your institution's Canvas environment and import it into their own environment.

I hope you found that information helpful.

-Doug