How to Share Content in Canvas with Specific Students
If a student is absent from class and you need to share materials with them that you do not want to make available to the other students within the Canvas course site, please see the notes and recommendations below.
- If course content like lecture slides, lecture notes, and handouts are posted to Canvas each week by the instructor for reference by students, no further action is needed.
Non-Canvas Options
- The easiest/simplest way to share content with only a specific student (or small group of students) is to upload the files to your cloud storage platform of choice -- Google Drive, Box, and OneDrive are all options available to you through Northwestern IT -- and share the link only with select students either through email or the Canvas Inbox.
Canvas Options
- If it is necessary to use Canvas for this process, the best option is to:
Create a folder in the Files section of the course site and set its permissions to "Only available to students with link"
Upload the files for that week to the corresponding folder (note: you do not need to change the permissions on the files as well, they will inherit permissions set at the folder level).
When a student requires access to these materials, create an ungraded Assignment where the files from the corresponding week's folder are linked.
Use the visible date range for the assignment to select the dates you would like the content to be visible to the student(s) and assign it only to specific student(s).
Save & Publish the assignment and notify student(s) via email or the Canvas inbox.