In Canvas, parents & guardians function as Observers. This means that you will have limited permissions that allow you to see what is going on in a course without participating in the course or viewing the data/work of students for whom you are not the guardian.

Observers Can:

Observers can view Global Navigation, Course Navigation, Breadcrumb Navigation, Sidebar, and Help link.

The Global Navigation helps you get to where you want to go across all of your Canvas courses [1].
The Course Navigation helps you get to where you want to go within your canvas course [2].
The Breadcrumb Navigation shows you where you have navigated to inside of a course and gives you a quick and easy way to move backward [3].
The Sidebar will be mostly empty for Observers, but will come in handy when its time to edit a course Page [4].
The Help link is very important. When you need assistance from your instructor or the Canvas Support Team, click the Help link [5].

The Course Navigation links on the left side of your screen help you get to where you want to go inside of Canvas. As an Observer, you will see up to 11 links*. They are:

Announcements
Assignments
Discussions
Pages
Files
Syllabus
Outcomes
Quizzes
Modules
Conferences
Collaborations

*Please note that teachers frequently hide one or more items from the course navigation menu (left hand side of the Canvas interface). Hidden items are not available for student or observer access/viewing.

Click here for more information

Observers Cannot:

Submit assignments or take quizzes
Join Course Groups
View Course Discussions
Send messages to students
See Course Rosters

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