Accessing Canvas Courses as a Guest

Environment

Canvas
Cirrus Identity Console (social login)

Issue

An external course participant (someone without a U-M uniqname) is having difficulty accessing a Canvas course to which they were invited. 

Note: These instructions do not apply to courses within the U-M Canvas Catalog (https://canvas.it.umich.edu/catalog.html). 

Resolution

When you are invited to a course, you will receive an email notification to the email address that you were invited with. After receiving the invitation, you can follow these instructions to access the course: 

1. If you have not logged in to UM Canvas before, follow these instructions to create a friend account: Create a New Friend Account. 
   1. It is important that you create the friend account using the same email address that was invited to the course. 
2. Go to https://umich.instructure.com/.
3. Use the U-M Login option to log in with your Friend account.

Additional Information

Note: If the email address on your friend account does not match the email address invited to canvas, you will not see the course after logging in to Canvas. If the email address has not been invited to any courses, you will be re-routed to the Canvas sign in screen after authenticating. 

Need additional information or assistance? Contact the ITS Service Center.