See your course as students see it

Last updated: December 1, 2021

You can see your course as students see it any time — while you are developing your course, when you are ready to publish, or any time during the quarter. When you switch to Student View, Canvas creates a test student account. As the Test Student, you can see the course as a student, and experiment with submitting Assignments and posting to Discussions.

Follow these steps to see your course in Student View:

  1. StepsActions
  2. In the left-hand menu, click Settings.
  3. In the right-hand sidebar, click Student View.

You’ll know that you are in student view because two aspects of the interface have changed. In the upper-right corner where your name usually appears, you will now see Test Student. Also, along the bottom of the page is a bar. On the left side is a message that says: “You are currently logged in to Student View.”

On the right side of the bar are two buttons: Reset Student and Leave Student View. When you click Reset Student, you clear the history of any activities you have performed as that test student, and you create a brand new test student account. When you are ready to switch back to the regular view, click Leave Student View.

Note: There is a separate Test Student account for each course in Canvas.
Whenever you move to a new course you will need to activate the Test Student for that course.