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BYU Office of Information Technology
Canvas LMS at BYU

Canvas LMS and User Email Accounts at BYU

Summary of BYU Canvas user email policy and configuration, effective January 2, 2024

Overview

To comply with Brigham Young University's policy regarding email communication, BYU-OIT is modifying how Canvas LMS manages email addresses configured with user accounts at BYU. This change can potentially affect many student and employee accounts, and this document is intended to help users be aware of and prepared for those changes.

Description of changes

The following changes are being made to Canvas user accounts on the primary instance of Canvas at BYU, at byu.instructure.com / canvas.byu.edu:

  • Students: Each student account will be configured with one (and only one) email address – the “BYU Internal email” address listed on the user’s Personal Information screen in AIM. All other email addresses currently listed on the user’s account will be removed.
  • Employees (faculty and staff): All BYU email addresses with a “byu.edu” domain or subdomain and listed on the user’s AIM account listing will be retained or added as the user’s “Ways to Contact” email addresses in Canvas. All other addresses (those without byu.edu domains) will be removed.
  • Student employees: Students who are also employed with a BYU.edu email address for work configured in their AIM account (as the “work” email address) will have their internal and work email addresses configured in their Canvas account as “Ways to Contact”

Additionally, the ability for students and faculty to self-configure “Ways to Contact” in Canvas LMS through the Canvas user interface will be disabled, and changes to email address configurations will need to be made directly to one’s BYU / AIM account. All users will retain access to configure their Notification Preferences in Canvas, and BYU employees will be able to designate one address as their Canvas default email address.

Limited scope of changes

The changes described here apply only to users (students, faculty, staff and some administrators) of BYU’s primary instance of Canvas, located at byu.instructure.com (canvas.byu.edu). It does not apply to Canvas instances for BYU Independent Study, The BYU English Language Center, or BYU Law School.

Background, and University Communication Policy

This change is being implemented to ensure that all user accounts in Canvas LMS comply with the BYU policy that “every email communication to BYU students from a BYU entity must be sent to the student's BYU-provided email.” (BYU email policy) It will also align Canvas accounts with the university's expectation that “Information about coursework through Learning Suite and other LMS platforms like Canvas must be sent to BYU email addresses.”

The BYU Internal email address (definition)

At BYU, the “internal” email address is defined as a student’s primary university address, to be used for both academic and university employment communication. For faculty and staff, it is the user’s primary work / Microsoft Exchange email address. In most cases, the address configured for a user’s “internal” address will follow the [NetID]@byu.edu format. Internal addresses for users in some university departments may vary from this.

The internal email address is displayed in each user’s Personal Information screen in AIM.

Timeline for changes

The changes described above are being pushed to Canvas during the first week of January 2024- Email updates to user accounts are expected to be complete within a few days.

Email Address Changes and Exceptions

Users in Canvas who find that their Canvas email address is incorrect (particularly after an ID and/or name change) should contact BYU OIT (support.byu.edu) to get help in either setting or correcting the internal BYU address.

Questions and Answers

What should I do or be aware of as a Canvas user, in response to these changes?

If you have one or more alternate email addresses (that are not the BYU Internal address) configured in your account, be aware that these will be removed from your Canvas account. If you wish to continue receiving Canvas notifications that were previously going to one of these user-configured addresses, you will want to check your Notification Preferences page in Canvas, and make sure your BYU Internal / Canvas address is set up to start receiving these notifications.

Are there exceptions to the email restriction that permit non-BYU email addresses to be used in Canvas?

External email addresses (i.e. gmail.com, hotmail.com, etc.) without a BYU.edu domain or sub-domain will not be available to use in Canvas. The primary exception to this restriction will be employees of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, the Church Educational System, and CES institutions who need limited access to Canvas at BYU for their work. An exception also applies to vendors, visiting faculty, and other users without BYU email addresses who require access to Canvas at BYU. These individuals should work with BYU-OIT Canvas administration (canvas_team@byu.edu) to configure non-BYU email addresses with their Canvas accounts.

I rely on multiple email accounts to manage notifications or Canvas communication. Will I be able to continue this after these changes?

Students who are not employees will be limited to using a single email address in Canvas LMS. This will be their internal BYU email address ( [NetID]@byu.edu) .

Employees, including student employees with a BYU work email address, will have limited options for using multiple email accounts, as long as they:

  • are listed in AIM on the user’s account
  • have a byu.edu domain or subdomain (byu.edu, stat.byu.edu, etc.)

Canvas users who lose the ability to work with multiple email accounts in Canvas due to this change are advised to sort notifications into categories or folders using their email client’s rules or filters. Instructions for doing this in Outlook can be found here.

If my internal BYU email address is replaced with another or renamed, what will happen in Canvas?

The system that passes information between AIM and Canvas is configured to detect changes to users’ internal email addresses and should update the user’s assigned Canvas email address accordingly – usually within one day (overnight). If a change in your internal BYU email address is not recognized in Canvas after 24 hours, please contact OIT Support at support.byu.edu or by phone at 801-422-4000 for assistance.

I am unable to reply to Canvas messages through email, and I receive an error from Canvas when I reply to a Canvas message email notification. How I can reply to messages through email?

This typically happens when Canvas doesn’t recognize an address on your reply as a ‘verified’ email address on your Canvas account. This can often occur when you receive a Canvas message notification, but you reply with a message that has a different address in the ‘sender’ or ‘reply-to’ fields and that address is not one of your verified email addresses in Canvas.

To avoid this issue, check the configuration of your email account(s) in Outlook or your email client, and make sure your ‘sender’ and ‘reply-to’ fields are found on your Canvas “Ways to Contact” list. Also, avoid replying to Canvas notifications that have been forwarded from a different email account.

How do I update or correct my listed BYU internal email?

Students are required to use their NetID email account as their BYU internal email, and this cannot be modified.

Faculty and staff who may have multiple email addresses they use for work or use a BYU sub-domain (i.e. _____@stat.byu.edu) should work with their department or the Registrar’s office directly to configure the needed BYU internal email address on their general BYU record. Information on changing personal information can be found here. (Users cannot add, modify, or delete any email addresses directly in Canvas.)

Does Canvas provide my email address information to other Canvas users?

Only Canvas administration has access to individual email address information of other users in Canvas, although in many cases, the BYU Internal email address for most users can be obtained elsewhere or inferred. Canvas only shares limited personal information (names only) with other Canvas users, and only within the scope of need (i.e. students cannot view users outside of their courses, etc.)

I don’t want to use one of my listed “Ways to Contact” in Canvas. How do I remove it?

Your “Ways to Contact” accounts are configured by BYU and users are not permitted to change or delete them. However, you can configure how they are used by Canvas in your Notification Preferences, in your Account Settings: For emails you do not wish to use, disable all notifications for those accounts and Canvas will not use those emails.

What is a default email address in Canvas, and how do I select and use it?

The default email address in Canvas is considered your primary contact email address in the LMS. It is the one that will be visible to Canvas administration here at BYU if needed, and the one visible to LTI (plugin) providers (i.e. McGraw Hill, Elsevier, etc.). For users with multiple email addresses permitted (faculty and staff), the default address is the one identified with a star icon on your “Ways to Contact” list. Each user’s default email address in Canvas is initially set to be the user’s internal BYU email address.

For faculty or staff who wish to select a different default address (not recommended), click above or below the star icon on your “Ways to Contact” list to relocate the star to a different address. Alternatively, click on the “Edit settings” button and use the drop-down selector to identify a new default address.

Because the default email address is used by some third-party apps in Canvas to identify users, we recommend keeping the default email address set to your [NetID]@byu.edu email address. Changing it to a non-NetID address or changing the default mid-semester may cause errors or interruption of services in Canvas.