Canvas Test Environment: How can I test as a student?

I am running tests in the Canvas test environment using this subdomain pattern:

[clientname].test.instructure.com

I created test accounts for a teacher and a student. I was able to log in as the test teacher and manage my test classroom. However, I was not able to use the test student account I created due to this message:

How can I override this restriction so I can test as a student?

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Accepted answers

Chris

Hi @hanmari,

If you're the admin for your school/institution, I believe you can contact your CSM and ask them to temporarily allow student logins to your test instance. You probably won't want to leave that option too long just to ensure real students don't somehow find the instance and do anything in there, as it'll get erased with the production refreshes.

I hope this info helps!

-Chris

All comments

Jeff_F

@hanmari - have you considered using the Act As feature (aka masquerade as)? This can help us see what the students are seeing. It isn't perfect but is much better than guessing.

Notes:

Masquerading only simulates permissions. It does not reproduce the full student session environment because the account cannot actually log in. Anything tied to true authentication like LTIs with student linked credentials, external dashboards, publisher tools, or OAuth workflows will fail or return errors that do not occur in production.

External tools like publisher platforms, plagiarism checkers, simulations, or analytics tools frequently malfunction or are not connected in test. Acting as a student can produce errors that students would never see in production.

Act As bypasses certain accessibility settings real students may depend on such as user specific accommodations, third party alternative format tools, or individualized due date adjustments.

The student dashboard cards, to do list behavior, mobile app experience, and recently graded indicators may not match what a real student actually sees.

To sum up, Act As on the test server is fine for checking permissions and visibility rules inside the course, but it becomes unreliable for testing anything involving:

• LTIs
• External apps
• Identity based features
• Notifications
• Mobile
• True student workflow sequences

hanmari

I should clarify that I need to use a registered student account and cannot simply use the "act as a student" button for my tests. I am testing LTI 1.3/Advantage protocols that connect a Canvas user account to a third-party application where every user needs to have a matching user account. To this end, I have configured a corresponding test teacher and test student in the third-party application and set up the Single Sign On (SSO) credentials through a developer key. My goal is to test the following workflows:

as a test teacher:
- log into test Canvas
- create an assessment
- use LTI deep linking to associate the assessment with an External Tool
- assign the assessment to the test classroom student
as a test student:
- log into test Canvas
- choose the assigned assessment and SSO into the External Tool (this creates a link between the student's assessment and a gradebook entry)
- complete the assignment in the External Tool so the LTI Assignment & Grading Services (AGS) relays the student score to the Canvas gradebook
as a test teacher
- log into test Canvas
- verify that the test student's score has been accurately recorded in the Canvas gradebook

I have been able to verify the first set of steps, but am stymied at not being able to log into test Canvas as a student.

hanmari

Thanks for the suggestion, Jeff. Unfortunately, I am testing some of those exact scenarios that you listed as not being able to sufficiently test using the feature that allows you to masquerade as a generic student.

oneilllj

Hi @hanmari

My only suggestion for testing like that is a completely different device that is set up as the student, logging in with test credentials on that device and then complete your testing.

It isn't ideal, but would give you the environment to test what you need.

Chris

Hi @hanmari,

I hope this info helps!

-Chris

leward

Hi @hanmari,

If your student test account is added to a different test course as a teacher, I believe you should be able to log in to test or beta with it and access any of its classes. As long as it's not important for the account to be a student canvas wide, that shouldn't be a problem. Not sure of the behavior if the "declared_user_type" is applied to user accounts.

hanmari

Thanks for the info, Chris. I was able to contact customer support and ask for the restriction against student accounts to be removed from the test and beta environments.

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