04-Finding Users and User Details
Finding Users and User Details in Canvas
Finding user data in Canvas is one of the areas where you need to be careful to protect user privacy. To find a user in Canvas:
Search by A#
Search by name
Note that Canvas stores the user’s middle name, so searching by first and last name together may not yield results. For best results when searching by name, pick the most unique part of the name and search by that.
Search by email
Searching by email is often an easier way to search for faculty and staff, since their email addresses tend to be first.last@usu.edu. Unfortunately, student emails aren’t so predictable.
Canvas User Display Name
Names come from Banner: First, Middle, Last. If instructors don't want students to see their middle name, they can add their first name as preferred in Banner.
If the individual lists their middle name as their preferred name, that name may be duplicated in their Canvas full name. Franklin Joseph Jones, if he goes by Joseph, would have a full name in Canvas of Joseph Joseph Jones. The Display name can have their name once, which is what will show in discussion forums, but the duplicated first name will appear in People and Grades
Search by Canvas ID (or just plug in in the URL)
Although you can search by the user’s Canvas ID, if you what it is, you can go directly to the user account, because it’s URL is https://usu.instructure.com/accounts/15/users/[Canvas_ID], as in the example shown below, where the Canvas ID is 328052.
Search by SIS ID
The SIS ID comes from Banner, and only in rare circumstances will you need to search by it. But it’s possible!
The User Account Page
The user account page provides a lot of useful information and troubleshooting tools, including (but not limited to)
A list of all courses and the user’s role in those courses. You can enter each course directly from this page.
Lots of information, plus “Act as User” option
See a list of all of the user’s course enrollments and click into any course directly.
View a log of all page views and participations, along with the browser used.
When a user submitted an item, a checkmark is displayed in the “Participated” column in the page view log. This page view log is a great way to piece together some of the circumstances and timing around a reported problem.
