Canvas @ Yale

Accessing and Managing Your Canvas Account as a Non-Yale User (Guest Account)

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Guest faculty and students who have been granted access to Yale University's instance of Canvas to participate in Yale courses are issued "Guest" accounts, which access Canvas @ Yale differently to their Yale participant counterparts. Non-Yale users also have slightly different options for managing their Canvas account in the Canvas @ Yale system.

Non-Yale users in Canvas are not issued a Yale NetID.

Requesting a Canvas Guest Account

If you are a non-Yale member that needs access to Canvas @ Yale, your account will need to be requested by an instructor, staff member, or Canvas admin.

For more information about how Canvas @ Yale accounts are requested, visit our Requesting Non-Yale User (Guest) Accounts for Canvas article.

Accessing Canvas @ Yale as a Guest User

  1. Once you have a guest account, you can login to Canvas @ Yale and click the "Guest" login button.
  1. Your "Login" is the email address used by the Yale instructor or Canvas Admin who submitted your guest account creation.
  2. Input your "Password."
  3. Click the "Log In" button.

Finding Your Canvas Courses

An instructor or a Canvas admin will need to enroll you in a course to give you access. If you believe that you should have access to a course, but do not see it in your list of courses, please contact your instructor or a Canvas administrator.

  1. You can access your course from the "Dashboard" by clicking on a course tile.
  2. If you do you not see your course on the Dashboard, click the "Courses" icon in the left-side global navigation bar.
    1. you may need to click the "All Courses" link to view the full list.

Accepting a Course Invite

Once added to a course, you will receive an email invitation to the email address associated with your guest account.

  1. Be sure that you click the “Accept” button in that email, or log into Canvas and click the “Accept” button on the Dashboard page in the top banner.
  2. Once you accept the invitation, you will be officially added to the course, and you will be able to locate the course on your Dashboard.
  3. You will only need to accept the invitation once.

Canvas Guest Account Passwords

There are 2 ways you can receive your initial guest account password for Canvas @ Yale:

  1. A generic password was set on your behalf - you should have received an email from your instructor or Yale Canvas administrator informing you of your password.
  2. An automated email - you should have received an email from Instructure / Canvas requesting that you complete the account registration process for your guest account and to set your own password.

Resetting a Canvas Guest Account Password

Guest account users are responsible for managing their passwords using these instructions. The Educational Technology / Canvas @ Yale support team does not reset or change passwords on behalf of any Canvas user.

  1. Go to the main login screen at http://canvas.yale.edu and click the "Guest" login option.
  2. On the login page, click the "Forgot Password?" link.
  3. On the next screen enter your login ID.
    1. In most cases, your login ID will be your email address.
  4. An email will be sent to your designated email address asking you to set a new password.

Changing a Canvas Guest Account Password

These instructions are for Canvas Guest Account users in the Yale @ Canvas instance. Yale community members with Yale email addresses and NetIDs will need to change their NetID password, which will change their password for all applications that utilize their single sign-on authentication.

To change the password on a Canvas guest account, follow the instructions on the Canvas How do I change my login password? support article.

Canvas Guest Account FAQ

Why can't my Canvas guest account be added to a course?

Instructors may run into an error when trying to manually add a guest account user to a course if the email address is not confirmed. In this situation, the instructor can either add the user using the guest user's login ID (alternatively called NetID for guest accounts), which will be the same as the guest user's email address, or the guest user you can confirm their email address.

Instructors should be using the instructions on Adding a Guest Account User to their course.

Pop up that says "We were unable to find matches below. Select any you would like to create as new users. Unselected will be skipped at this time."
How do I confirm my email address?

In most cases, email addresses for guest accounts do not get automatically confirmed. If your email address requires confirmation, but you did not receive a confirmation email, you can have it resent:

  1. Log into Canvas @ Yale and click on your profile icon at the top-left of the global navigation and select "Settings."
  2. On the right-hand side, you will see your email address. If there is an exclamation point icon next to your email address, this indicates an issue with the email address.
    1. Click on the email address itself to resend the confirmation.
  3. Follow the instructions in the email to complete the confirmation.
Exclamation point icon that says "This email has not been confirmed. Click the address for more details."
Pop up box that says "We emailed a confirmation link"

For more help, please contact [email protected].

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