Canvas Access and Course Management FAQ
Canvas at UIW is supported through a collaborative process between departments and systems across the university. While the Office of Teaching, Learning, & Technology manages instructional support and platform administration, other units—including the Registrar, Human Resources, and IT—play key roles in access, course creation, and enrollment pipelines.
Below are answers to frequently asked questions about accessing Canvas, course creation, permissions, and user roles. For additional help, contact canvas@uiwtx.edu.
How do UIW users access Canvas?
UIW users need active university credentials to access Canvas. When a student is admitted or an employee is hired, they receive access to Cardinal Apps, where Canvas is available once the appropriate roles and courses are assigned.
If you are having trouble accessing Canvas, resetting your passphrase, or finding Cardinal Apps, contact the Help Desk at (210) 829-2721 or submit a ticket through the Service Portal.
Faculty and staff with no enrollments will see a message that they have no courses. Their dashboard updates once they are added to courses in Canvas.
What types of Canvas courses are available to faculty?
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Academic Courses: Created and managed via Banner and reflect the official class schedule. These are automatically populated with instructors and students.
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Support Courses: Manually created for administrative, training, or support purposes. These are not tied to Banner and can be requested via canvas@uiwtx.edu.
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Sandbox Courses: Blank courses used for training, testing, or preparing course materials. Faculty can request a sandbox at any time, but should only have a single Sandbox course outside rare exceptions.
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Development Courses: Courses designed to build and copy forward into academic course shells. Alternatively, these can be used to experiment, as they are tied to a specific subject or course number.
How are academic courses created?
Step 1: The Registrar creates the schedule
A few months before a new term, the Registrar creates the schedule of classes with instructor assignments for the upcoming term, and the information is entered into Banner.
Step 2: Banner communicates with Canvas
60 days before the start of the undergraduate term, Banner begins communicating course and enrollment information to Canvas. Canvas uses the information sent from Banner to create the academic course shells and enroll the instructors with Teacher access.
If you need a course shell earlier than that, request a sandbox or development course to start building your materials in advance.
Step 3: Ongoing communication between Canvas and Banner
If there are changes to the instructor, departments update the information in Banner. Banner continues to communicate with Canvas several times daily to update the course enrollments throughout the term.
How are users enrolled in academic courses?
All student and instructor enrollments in academic courses come from Banner. Canvas imports enrollment changes from Banner several times daily. If you're not enrolled in a course or someone is missing, check that the information in Banner is correct.
Faculty can manually add other roles (like Designers or Observers) to their courses, but not students.
How do Banner and Canvas work together?
Banner is a system that manages data for the university, while Canvas is a learning management system (LMS) that allows you to provide instruction online. A feed is created to allow Banner to communicate with Canvas. The process runs several times each day to update Canvas with changes made in Banner. However, this is not an immediate connection. It may take several hours for changes to appear in Canvas.
Important: The Canvas course SIS ID is built using information from Banner—such as subject code, course number, section code, part of term, semester abbreviation, and year. If course details change after the initial Banner feed, Canvas may generate a new course shell. Contact the Canvas administrator if you have questions.
What happens after a course ends?
After the term ends or participation dates pass, the course becomes read-only for all users. Banner-to-Canvas sync is turned off, and the course remains in Canvas for academic recordkeeping. It can no longer be edited unless reactivated by request.
Instructors can adjust course participation dates in the settings before the term ends. To request changes after the course becomes read-only, contact canvas@uiwtx.edu.
What does "read-only" mean for a Canvas course?
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Students: Can view materials and grades but cannot interact or submit work.
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Instructors: Can copy content and view data but cannot make changes to content or grades.
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Observers: Can view course content when paired with a student but cannot participate.
What if my Canvas course or enrollment is incorrect?
First, confirm the course or user is listed correctly in Banner. Academic course issues must be corrected at the source. For support, sandbox, or development courses, the Canvas administrator can assist. If in doubt, email canvas@uiwtx.edu and we’ll help determine where the issue needs to be addressed.
