The following is designed to provide guidance to UO faculty, students, and prospective students regarding UO students, prospective students, and visiting scholars attending classes for which they are not enrolled and gaining access to Canvas or other Learning Management Systems (LMS) sites for classes for which they are not enrolled.

Attending Classes

UO students may wish to attend classes for which they are not enrolled, with the intent to add the classes prior to the add deadline. They are not entitled to attend classes until they have registered for that class. An instructor may, at their discretion, allow a student to attend a class for which they are not enrolled up to the last day to add classes, as long as there are enough seats for all enrolled students to be seated first.

In addition, prospective UO students and visiting scholars may wish to attend classes for which they are not enrolled, with the intent to learn more about the UO and/or contribute in some way to the course, such as presenting a guest lecture. For this purpose, prospective students and visiting scholars may attend one class occurrence per course, with the permission of the academic program, department, school, or college, and/or the instructor.

In either case, if non-enrolled individuals are attending a class session, faculty should not take attendance by calling out names from the class roster, as that could expose non-directory information to non-enrolled individuals.

Access to Canvas (or other Learning Management System) and remote learning resources

Student access to Learning Management System course sites, or interactive remote education, for individuals not enrolled in the class is not allowed, as that access would expose non-directory information to non-enrolled individuals. Learning Management Software includes Canvas, and remote learning resources include Zoom.

If there is to be a guest lecturer for a remote course, that instance should be presented as a webinar, which will limit non-directory information from being unintentionally exposed.

Temporary Observer Access for Students Not Yet Registered for the Class

Instructors may request temporary Observer access for students not yet registered for the class, under the two following criteria: 

• Student is on the waitlist for the class, or
• Student has indicated an intention to add the class

All Observer access for non-registered students will end after the last day to add a class each term.

Access for Students Finishing Incompletes

Instructors may request that the student get access to the course site which the student originally accessed, to support finishing an incomplete.

Any other canvas access to class materials for a non-registered student must be provided by the instructor outside of Canvas.