In Canvas, the Observer role can be used to enroll parents, mentors, and guests who would like to participate in a Canvas course but do not need to earn course credit. Observers can view course data but cannot participate in all Canvas areas. Observers may be added to a course to observe course data. For instance, instructors sometimes invite guests to join their courses, such as for a web conference. Enrolling the guest with an observer role allows access to the course without being able to affect any course data or participation.

The main use of the observer role is to link a user to a student. Observers can be linked to a student or multiple students and view the student's data in the course. Parents are often enrolled as observers and linked to students, especially in K-12 environments. Observers cannot submit work on behalf of the students they observe, but they can see student grades, assignments and events, and course interactions.

Depending on the institution, observers can have different levels of access. Observers can be linked to a single student or multiple students. These links can be at the account or course levels. For more information about course-level user permissions, view the Canvas Course Permissions resource document.

• A user-account level link will ensure the observer is linked to a student and will enroll the observer in each student's past, current, and future courses automatically.
• A course-level link is a link between an observer's enrollment in a course and the student's enrollment in that same course. These links have to be created each time the student and observer are enrolled in a course.

Observer Access in Canvas