Teaching and Learning Resource Center

Roles in Carmen

The People list in CarmenCanvas is updated nightly with enrollment information from the Registrar's system. This update includes instructors and other instructional staff listed in the Registrar’s system. It also includes all students currently enrolled in the course.  See Carmen Role Mapping for details regarding how these roles map to the Registrar’s system roles. Instructors can manually Add Participants using the Carmen landing page. This article explains the various CarmenCanvas roles and permissions. 

The People list in Carmen does not identify which students are graduating seniors or provide information about class rank or other details. This information is in the Faculty Center roster. 

The Observer role in CarmenCanvas is being used to enable advisors from the Student Athlete Support Services Office (SASSO) to audit the academic progress of student-athletes. If you need to add a guest to your course, use the role that most closely approximates their function in the class. 

Teachers

In Carmen, the instructor role is titled Teacher. This role is automatically assigned to individuals with the Registrar role of Primary Instructor or Secondary Instructor.

Instructors have access to all course sections and full course management abilities. Course management includes the ability to add/edit or delete:

  • Assignments
  • Calendar events
  • Discussions
  • Grades, either in the Gradebook or moderating grades with Speedgrader
  • Groups
  • Pages (including wiki pages)
  • Quizzes 

Instructors also have the ability to:

  • Add participants to a course through the landing page this includes assigning the roles of TA, Grader and Designer
    Caution

    Instructors cannot manage users from within Canvas

  • Create, publish and unpublish a course
  • Send messages to a class or individual participants of a published course 
  • View usage reports and analytics
Teaching Assistant

In Carmen, the teaching assistant role is titled TA. This role only has access to the course sections in which they are enrolled. Assistant roles are automatically assigned to individuals with the Regiatrar role of TA or Lab Assistant.

Assistants have nearly the same level of access to the course as the Instructor. Including full access to course material and assignment functions and nearly full access to grades.

Key differences between the Instructor and Assistant role include:

  • Assistants cannot create, publish or unpublish a course.
  • Assistants cannot manage learning outcomes or add users to a course.
  • The Assistant role cannot submit final grades.

Why have an Assistant role?
This role is useful for allowing someone other than the official Instructor to upload or change course material or to enter or manage grading. However, someone with the Instructor role is still responsible for submitting final grades to the Registrar.
 

Grader

Grader roles are automatically assigned to individuals with the Registrar role of Grader who does not have access to the Registrar’s Grade Roster. This role only has access to the course sections in which they are enrolled.

The Grader role is the least-powerful "Instructor-like" role. Those with the Grader role can do the following:

  • Grade assignments and provide feedback
  • Enter grade data
  • Moderate (edit / delete) discussions
  • Create and edit rubrics
  • Manage (add / edit / delete) Pages
  • Send messages to the classes
  • View course content

Why have a Grader role?
The Grader role is useful for individuals who grade student work or who might lead a recitation section but who do not need full access to modify course content.

Designer

The Designer role is virtually identical to the Instructor for the purpose of creating, editing, or modifying content and assignments. However, the Designer role has limited access to any part of the course where student responses or data are visible. The Designer role can only be assigned using the Carmen landing page

Why have a Designer role?
The Designer role is useful when the official Instructor wishes to delegate course development to another person who will not be teaching the course.

Observer

The Observer role in Carmen enables advisors from the Student Athlete Support Services Office (SASSO) to audit the academic progress of student-athletes. 

Anyone who appears as an observer in a Carmen course is an authorized advisor from SASSO. In Carmen, each Observer is directly associated with athletes for whom they are responsible. SASSO advisors are able to review the progress of one or more student-athletes in a class.

Student-athletes sign FERPA waivers that give SASSO permission to view and monitor this information, which is only shared with SASSO counselors, the individual student, and the coaches of the respective sport.

Observers can view:

  • Published course materials
  • Assignments submitted by their students
  • Grades assigned to their students
  • Quizzes index page (cannot view a quiz)

Observers cannot view: 

  • Class roster
  • Grades for other students
  • Assignments for other students
  • A quiz (can view quizzes index)
  • Discussion posts
  • Groups

Because the Observer role in Carmen is being used for this purpose, it is not available to use for adding guests in Carmen courses.

If you need to add a guest to your course, use the role that most closely approximates their function in the class. The Student and the Designer role both protect FERPA data while allowing a guest to see and engage in course activities.
 

Students

The Student role is automatically assigned to students enrolled in a course and have access to all published course sections unless restricted to a specific section.

Students can: 

  • View published course materials
  • Submit homework
  • Take quizzes
  • Send messages to other individuals within a course
  • Participate in discussions
  • Create conferences
  • View their grades
  • Create discussions, If allowed by the instructor
Caution

Adding a participant to a course in Carmen does not enroll the participant with the Registrar's office. Students wishing to enroll in the course must do so through BuckeyeLink.