Course visibility settings govern who may view your course site. By default, only users enrolled in a Canvas course site have access to the site.
For all courses in UPenn Canvas, excluding GSE, PSOM, and Wharton courses, the visibility settings for a course can only be managed by Canvas Admins. By request, Admins can change the visibility settings of a course. Instructors still have the ability to publish their Canvas course sites, making them available to students.
There are three visibility settings:
- Course (default): Limits access to enrolled students as well as to other members of the site (TAs, departmental support staff, informal auditors).
- Institution: Allows any logged-in PennKey holder who has the link to your course site to view the content, but they cannot interact with or see students.
- Public: Allows anyone with the link to your course site to view the content, but they cannot interact with or see students. Public users cannot submit assignments, nor can they take quizzes or access unpublished materials in Files. Please note, if your site is public, it is findable in search engines.
This policy was updated to reflect best practices in protecting copyrighted course content. The complete policy is available on the Public Canvas Sites page.
Instructors who wish to make a site public should submit a request to their Local Support Provider or canvas@pobox.upenn.edu.
For questions regarding this policy or public Canvas sites, please contact canvas@pobox.upenn.edu.