Thursday, August 20, 2026
This message was recently posted on the Associate Vice President, Academic, (AVPA) website.
What has happened
- Several weeks ago, we became aware that undergraduate students were being added to LEARN courses with permissions that allowed them to see other students’ marks as well as assignments and personal information. This included coop students who were working for instructors, as well as undergraduate TAs.
- The addition of students to courses with elevated permissions creates risks for disclosure of student information as well as potential academic integrity problems.
- As a result, ITMS temporarily restricted instructors’ ability to add users to their courses themselves, while we assessed the degree of the issue. Users could still be added, but they were approved by the Registrar’s Office and/or GSPA, to ensure that they were being given the appropriate level of access.
What is happening
- For the Fall term, we will return instructors’ ability to add users to courses as TAs or as “Staff/Librarian” (instructions). However, it is important that instructors follow these guidelines.
- Limit access only to personal information necessary to do the job.
- If someone only needs to view content, elevated rights are not required.
- Do they need to grade submissions, edit content?
- Students with legitimate need to access a course (for co-op or TA work) should be given the appropriate level of access. This should be the lowest level of access that enables them to perform their duties. Students or staff who are not acting as TAs (i.e., grading) should generally not be given TA-level access (TA-levels 1.5 to 4) and should not be able to see other students’ grades, submissions or student numbers. If you are not sure what role is appropriate, ask LEARN Help.
- All students (graduate or undergraduate) who are given access at TA Level 1.5 or higher must complete a confidentiality agreement before being added to the course. Contact your unit administration for agreement examples and details.
- See Access to Courses for other situations where course access is required and must be requested and may require approval from the Registrar’s Office and/or GSPA (Graduate Studies and Postdoctoral Affairs) (contact LEARN Help):
- Auditing or “sitting in” on a class (register via Quest)
- Complete an “INC” grade or supplemental or deferred exam (request form)
- Access to another Instructor’s course (request form)
- Adding Guest speakers to your course (request form)
- Limit access only to personal information necessary to do the job.
If you have any questions, please contact LEARN Help (request form) or email learnhelp@uwaterloo.ca. View the announcement on the AVPA website (PDF).