Although Canvas is not the university’s official “system of record” for grades (Banner is), faculty might want to review the details of a former student’s work if asked for a letter of recommendation or other academic need. In April 2023 and November 2023, ITS re-loaded old Canvas course enrollments from Banner back through the Summer 2017 term, making grades and assignments visible to those courses’ teachers. Unless a student dropped a course -- that is, as long as they remained enrolled in a course through its conclusion -- they should now be visible in the previous course.
This process was necessary because when students graduate from St. Thomas, their accounts eventually expire and are deleted. (See Account Expiration for details on that policy.) Prior to September 2023, when the student account was deleted there was no longer a “person” for Canvas to attach grades and submissions to and they disappeared from Canvas course rosters (even though their previous work still resides in Canvas).
To restore this old information to faculty, ITS re-created the deleted student accounts inside Canvas, placed them in a “closed” state (called “suspended” which means “not activated” rather than “academically suspended”) and re-uploaded the enrollment files as they looked at the end of each previous term.
This project only reflects enrollments and section structures that had been documented in Banner. If a course used manual sections to organize student submissions, that student work will not appear in the Grades area. However, those submissions can also be recovered manually if necessary; use the Request Service form to let the Tech Desk know.
In September 2023, ITS took advantage of a new feature in Canvas to automatically switch deleted accounts to "suspended" rather than to "deleted". Going forward, ITS expects that student information (including custom group and section membership) will remain intact regardless of students' enrollment status at the University.. If you encounter situations where former students or their submissions seem to be missing from a Canvas course, contact the Tech Desk or fill out this submission form.
To report a problem or receive additional troubleshooting, please contact the
Tech Desk.
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