How do I allow waitlisted students or other crashers to access my Canvas course? – UCSB Support Desk Collaboration

At times, instructors may wish to make their course site available to students who are not enrolled in the course via GOLD (for example, to allow waitlisted students to access the site). Depending on the need, the instructor can allow students to join by:

Enabling a Secret URL & Sharing with Students - Instructors can generate a secret URL that can be distributed to students. Only students with the provided URL will be able to join (and participate) in the Canvas course.
Manually Add Students - Instructors can manually add students to the course.

Note: No students (enrolled via GOLD or not) can access your Canvas course site until it is published.

For instructors that want students to enroll themselves in the course, instructors can update the course settings to enable a secret URL. This URL can then be shared with students so they an add themselves to the Canvas course. To enable the secret URL, follow the instructions below:

1. In the Canvas course, click Settings from the left-side Course Navigation Menu.

2. Midway down the page, check the option for Let students self-enroll by sharing with them a secret URL. Then, click Update Course Details

3. The page will reload. You will then see that the course allows open enrollment along with a URL. Copy the generated URL and share with students.

4. When students access the provided URL, they will see an option to enroll in the course:

5. Students who join through the secret URL will be added to a new course section titled after the Canvas course (rather than to existing sections which sync with GOLD). We recommend reviewing your course's People tab to identify students who have manually added themselves to the course.

Instructors can also manually enroll selected waitlisted students to a course through the the instructions below:

1. In the Canvas course site, click People in the left-side Course Navigation Menu

2. Click +People in the top right corner

3. Select Login ID and enter the student's UCSB netID into the text box. If you are adding multiple users, separate them with a comma or line break (typically UCSBnetIDs are the prefix of the student's @umail.ucsb.edu address but the best way to get a person's UCSBnetID is to ask them).

4. Choose the appropriate role ("Student"), the appropriate section, and whether you wish for them to only interact with users in their section. Click Next.

5. On the following popup, confirm the enrollment looks correct. Then, click Add Users.

6. An invitation will be sent from Canvas to the student's email inviting them to the course. The student will need to accept the invitation in order to be added to the course.

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