While designing, building, and facilitating your Canvas course site, you may be curious what the student experience and interface looks like. There are two avenues for viewing your Canvas course site from the perspective of a user with the role of Student.
Table of Contents
This article will address the following information:
Canvas Student View
The "Student View" functionality is Canvas' built-in way to quickly and easily toggle their view in a Canvas course to a Student user. The Student View function is an excellent way to test all native Canvas tools and pages in your Canvas course site, though it will have mixed success in testing third-party external tools integrated into Canvas @ Yale. For testing external tools integrated with Canvas, please see our Sponsored Identity for Testing section below.
The Student View button (glasses icon) is accessible in the top-right corner of the Home Page, Announcements, Assignments, Discussions, Modules, People, Pages, Files, Syllabus, Outcomes, and Quizzes areas of your course.
- On any Canvas course page, click the "View as Student" button to enable this view.
Student View Interface
With the Student View toggled on, the interface will change to denote that you are now viewing the course as a Test Student. This Test Student user is an actual Canvas account that will appear in your course site's Gradebook, People Tool, SpeedGrader, etc. Every time you toggle on to view your course as a student, you inhabit this Test Student user that is unique for your course.
Notable interface components and changes while in Student View:
- A border frame will appear around your entire Canvas session, which denotes that "You are currently logged into Student View" for the duration you are using this functionality.
- In the border frame, click the "Reset Student" button to delete and reset the Test Student user you inhabit for this course when using this functionality.
- You may want to Reset the Test Student if you need to test an Assignment submission or Quiz attempt multiple times.
- In the border frame, click the "Leave Student View" button to toggle off the Student View and return to your normal role view in the course site.
- While in Student View, items in the Course Navigation menu not available to students will be hidden.
Sponsored Identity Account for Testing
When viewing / testing external tools integrated with Canvas, you may not be able to always rely on the native Student View functionality in Canvas. At this time, the best way to view / test the student view for external tools integrated into Canvas is to use a "Testing / Training ID" Sponsored Identity (SI), which is another full Yale NetID account that can be used for things like testing.
To request a "Testing / Training ID" Sponsored Identity, please see the ITS Help Desk Sponsored Identity support article for guidance. Please reference the 1601 PR.08 Sponsored Identity Access page for more information about Eligible User Types in the SI system.
For questions regarding acquiring a Sponsored Identity for testing a system, please contact the ITS Help Desk for support.
| Tool Name* | Way to View as a Student | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| BoodleBox | N/A | No way to view as Student user at this time. |
| Canvas Chat Tool | Native Canvas Student View | |
| Canvas New Quizzes | Native Canvas Student View | |
| Canvas Roll Call / Attendance | Sponsored Identity | |
| Ed Discussions | Sponsored Identity | |
| Feedback & Accessibility Barriers Tool | Native Canvas Student View | |
| Gemini LTI | N/A | No way to view as a Student user at this time. |
| Gradescope | Sponsored Identity | |
| Harmonize | Native Canvas Student View | The Test Student can post in discussions and assignments, and can complete polls. Their activity won't show up in Activity view and won't pass back to the Canvas SpeedGrader. |
| Macmillian Learning | Sponsored Identity | |
| Media Library (Panopto) | Native Canvas Student View | |
| Microsoft Education | N/A | No way to view as a Student user at this time. |
| Panorama | Native Canvas Student View | |
| Perusall | Sponsored Identity | |
| Respondus LockDown Browser | Sponsored Identity | |
| Speakology AI | Native Canvas Student View | Tool itself has a view as student option as well. |
| Turnitin (Plagiarism Framework & Originality Checked) | Native Canvas Student View | |
| Zoom | N/A | No way to view as a Student user at this time. |
*Last verified / checked 10/22/2026
If you need assistance viewing / testing a tool from the perspective of a student, please contact [email protected]. The Educational & Engagement Technology team would be happy to assist you in validating your configuration and work to make sure you are comfortable and confident that your course materials / assessments are presented and operating as you expect.
For more help, please contact [email protected].