Canvas Access Policy

Last updated: September 20, 2022

Overview

In order to appropriately secure course content and student data, the ability to sign in to Canvas is restricted generally to current employees and affiliates, and current and recent former students. Employees lose the ability to sign in to the UW Canvas LMS after they separate from the UW, in parallel with other IT services. Former students retain access to Canvas for five years past separation. Access to Panopto depends upon Canvas sign-in; Panopto users, including those who just view recordings, are impacted by the Canvas access policy.

Note: No course content or student submissions are deleted under the Canvas access policy. Instructor and student content in Canvas is retained according to the data retention policy.

Who has access to the UW Canvas LMS

People with the following affiliations are automatically authorized to access Canvas:

  • Current and former students (former students retain access for five years past separation)
  • Current employees and faculty
  • Current contingent employees
  • WWAMI instructors
  • Current clinicians and current employees of affiliated medical organizations
  • Access Program students (once registered)
  • Admin UW NetID (sadm_ and wadm_) accounts of current employees

Other affiliate or sponsored personal UW NetID accounts can be authorized to access Canvas via the Provisioning Request Tool (PRT).

Note: Shared UW NetID accounts are not permitted to access Canvas.

Important: Effective March 22, 2023, learners will no longer be able to sign in to UW Canvas using their Gmail accounts. Learners will be able to sign in only using their UW NetID.

When access expires

Separated employees and upcoming retirees lose access to Canvas four weeks after the effective date of their termination, per the UW’s standard procedure regarding computing services.

Employees who are also current or former students retain access to Canvas and the courses in which they were enrolled as a student. Permissions in the courses in which they had any role as a teacher, TA, course designer, guest teacher or librarian will be removed on separation (from employment), after a 90-day grace period.

Former students retain access to Canvas for five years after separation from the UW, which corresponds to the length of time courses are retained. In other words, students can access Canvas courses until the courses are deleted according to data retention policies and processes.

See the complete timeline for access to Canvas.

Current applicants

Applicants do not have access to Canvas. Once you have been admitted and confirmed your enrollment, you will be permitted to sign in to Canvas.

Registered PCE or Continuum College students

Enrolled PCE or Continuum college students have access to Canvas. These who enroll in a program and then register for courses on the same day might experience an overnight delay in getting access to Canvas. If you enrolled more than one day ago and cannot access Canvas, please contact help@uw.edu.

Quarterly instructors

When a quarterly instructor has a start date entered in Workday, they will automatically be able to access Canvas. If you are a prospective instructor and would like to access Canvas before a start date is entered in Workday, ask your department to use the Provisioning Request Tool to provision Canvas access for your account (or a sponsored account.)

Sponsored UW NetIDs

Sponsored UW NetID accounts are not automatically permitted to sign in to Canvas. Please ask the employee or department that sponsored your account to use the Provisioning Request Tool to provision Canvas access for your account.

Access to Canvas for sponsored accounts must be renewed annually. If you have a sponsored personal UW NetID, please ask the employee who sponsored your account to use the Provisioning Request Tool to renew your Canvas access.

Emeritus faculty

Emeritus faculty have an active academic appointment in Workday, and so will continue to be able to sign in to Canvas.

Retired faculty

Anyone with an active academic appointment in Workday will be able to sign in to Canvas. Retired faculty who do not have an active academic appointment will not have access to Canvas. If you need access, please contact your department and ask them to provision Canvas access for your UW NetID via the Provisioning Request Tool (PRT).

If you are teaching, you will gain access to Canvas once your academic appointment is active in Workday or a future start date has been specified. If you need earlier access, please contact your department and ask them to provision Canvas access for your UW NetID via the Provisioning Request Tool (PRT).

FAQs

What if I no longer have access to Canvas, but I need course materials?

Contact the department in which you were employed and request the course materials. Note that courses are deleted five years after the end of the academic year in which they were offered in accordance with data retention policies.

Alternatively, a current employee can provision access to Canvas for your UW NetID via the Provisioning Request Tool (PRT).

What do I do if I think I should have access?

If you think you should be authorized to access Canvas (if you have one of the affiliations listed above), but are unable to sign in, please contact help@uw.edu.

Instructors or affiliates in the UW School of Medicine WWAMI program should contact somaltsupport@uw.edu and ask to be granted access to the UW Canvas LMS.

I received an email notification that I have lost “affiliate access to Canvas and Panopto” because I am no longer a UW employee. Do I still have access to Canvas?

If you are a current student, or have been a student in the past five years, but your employment with the UW has ended (e.g., you TA’d for a quarter, and the quarter is now over), you will receive email notification that you have lost “affiliate access to Canvas and Panopto” along with other computing services because you are no longer a UW employee.

Access as a student
You will continue to have sign-in access to Canvas while you are a current student, or for five years after graduation/separation as a student, and will retain access to Canvas courses in which you were a student.

Access as an employee
Because you can continue to sign in to Canvas as a student, your access as an employee to the specific Canvas courses in which you had any role as a teacher, TA, course designer, guest teacher or librarian, will be removed after a 90-day grace period. If you need access to these courses, contact the department in which you were employed.

Your permissions to courses in which you were a TA or Teacher will be restored if you regain employment through the UW, such as a graduate student receiving a teaching or TA appointment.