Is there any harm with creating observers accounts using their email addresses as their login IDs an

Previously, we used our SIS to generate a user id using a student's SIS ID plus an additional number. I found that parents would lose this information and it would become difficult for them to login to Canvas without asking me for help. What if we now use the parents' email addresses as their user ids and login ids? Are there any privacy or security concerns with doing so? What do you use as the user and log in ids for your parents/observers at your schools?

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Chris

Hi @rpsimon,

I'm in higher-ed, so we don't really have parent observers here like k12. With that said, when we do have extrenal users (guest speakers, reviewers, etc) being added to Canvas, we do have them create a login to our SSO using their personal email address. Again, that's slightly different from Canvas itself, but it's really the same idea. With our sso, the login_id in Cavas ends up being their personal email address with the @ replaced by a +, but when they login to SSO they just enter their email and password they created.

We haven't really run into any privacy issues doing things this way, and I do agree with you that this is likely going to be much easier for parents to remember that a somewhat random student id.

-Chris

NoahBoswell

Hi there @rpsimon !

I wanted to add on, with experience from a K12 environment. Parents were able to use their emails as their Login IDs, and I've personally never experienced any issues, both from the Free for Teacher instance as well as from a paid Canvas environment. To my knowledge, we never hit major bumps in the road with security or privacy concerns, especially since that information was set up to only be viewed by certain users.

I hope that helps, too!

Noah

rpsimon

Tagging you both @chriscas and @NoahBoswell since you both have been helpful. 🙂

I see now after testing that I also need to include the email field in my csv as well. The image below is probably a bit too small to see properly, but it's the users.csv SIS import. Currently, we do not enter the email address in the import so this would be new also.

Also - how do you manage the parents' passwords for Canvas? Is there a way to give parents the ability to reset them in case they forget them? I don't think there is.

Thank you.

rpsimon

The problem is that I don't see that as an option to do that. I want to be able to set (temporary) passwords for the parents and for them to be able to reset them without needing my assistance. If it's easier for you to communicate via email than through this community, just let me know and we can be in touch via email. Thanks!

rpsimon

I created it as an admin, assigned credentials, and imported it as a csv.

I am wondering what the best method is to use going forward.

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