Student Persona in Canvas Student Persona in Canvas
  1. Faculty & Staff Support
  2. Canvas Tutorials
  3. Custom Technology for Faculty

Student Persona in Canvas

Navigating student outreach just got easier with Student Persona, a powerful custom Tool designed to streamline communication and support for educators, advisors, and administrators. Whether you need to contact students via call, text, email, or even reach out to their advisors, Student Persona puts all the essential tools at your fingertips.

Important Note:

With access to personal communication channels like phone calls and texts, always exercise professionalism and restraint. Respect boundaries—use texting only when necessary, and prioritize institutional-approved methods (e.g., email or Canvas inbox) for routine communication. Protecting student privacy and fostering trust should always come first.

Note: More features coming stay tuned.

Contents

How to Use Student Persona

Reviewing Additional Student Information

Viewing a Student’s Schedule

Issues loading Teams from the Student Persona tool? Try this!

Tech Tip Tuesday

How to Use Student Persona

  1. Navigate to your Course Home Page.

  2. Click Display Faculty Tools from the course menu on the top right (1) and then click Student Persona from the Faculty Tools menu that pops up (2). 

    display faculty tools
    Select Student Persona


     

  3. You will now see your Class Roster, with each student presented on an individual card.
    Student persona view showing one student and all associated information
  4. Each card displays key information about the student at a glance.
  5. Directly below each student’s profile picture, you will find four contact options:
    student contact info
     
    Text: Opens your default SMS application with the student's number pre-populated.

    Text box example

    Call: Opens your phone dialer with the student's number ready to call (the screenshot below shows Teams as the phone dialer).

    teams screen asking to call number

    Advisor: View the student’s advisor information and initiate contact.

    advisor screenshot showing contact info

    Inbox: Opens a new message to the student directly within Canvas Inbox.
    Inbox Example
     
  6. Note: Some students have opted out of text or call communication. These options will not be available for those individuals.

    opted out
     

Reviewing Additional Student Information

The student card also provides valuable academic context to inform your support:

  • First Time Taking This Course
    Screenshot showing student info, contact info, passed online class, completion of the canvas student training and first time in this course
  • First Time Ever in College
    first time ever in college
  • Student is Repeating the Course.
    student is repeating the course
  • Prior Success in Online Courses
    passed an online course

Viewing a Student’s Schedule

  • To see a student’s current course schedule, click the “View Schedule” button on their card.
    view schedule
  • This feature allows you to identify their other instructors and build a strong support network around the student.
    student's schedule with online classes at the top and f2f at the bottom
  • To close the schedule view: Always click the “X” in the top-right corner of the window. Do not use your browser’s back button, as this will exit the Student Persona tool entirely.

Issues loading Teams from the Student Persona tool? Try this!

If you're able to load the Student Persona tool, but when you click "call" nothing is happening, this might be due to a default setting on your computer that is preventing Teams or another program you wish to use to call the student to load. In order to fix this on your computer, follow the following steps: 

Step 1: Check Windows Default Apps

  1. Open Windows Settings by pressing Windows key + I.
  2. Select Apps → Default apps.
  3. In the search box, type TEL or look for the TEL protocol.
  4. Select the app currently assigned to the TEL protocol.
  5. Choose the program you want to use, such as Microsoft Teams, Skype, or another calling application.
  6. Save or confirm your selection if prompted.

Microsoft has a helpful guide here: Windows Default Apps Instructions.

Step 2: If Chrome is still opening the wrong program

  1. Open Chrome.
  2. Type chrome://settings/handlers into the address bar and press Enter.
  3. Check whether a website or service is registered to handle links.
  4. If an unwanted handler appears, remove it so Chrome can use the Windows default instead.

If you need help doing these steps, give our a team a call (727-341-3500) and we can guide you through it. 

Tech Tip Tuesday

Have Questions? Contact the Academic Technology Support Team

 Phone at 727-341-3500

Academic Technology Support Team Hours: (Monday - Friday 8:30 a.m. - 4:30 p.m. EST).

Want to Schedule a One-on-One or Group Session on Canvas or other instructional technology issues or opportunities?

Schedule 1:1 Support Help with a Member of the Academic Technology Support Team

Other Ways to get Help With Canvas!

After-hours or weekend assistance? 

Technical Support Center

Phone at 727-791-2795 or Email: onlinehelp@spcollege.edu

(Mon.- Fri. 8:00 a.m. - 10:00 p.m., Sat 8:00 a.m. - 5:00 p.m., Sun 12:00 p.m. - 8:00 p.m. Eastern). 

 

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