In 2016, the VPTL Canvas team developed the Roster Photos tool to close a major feature gap for those migrating from CourseWork to Canvas. The Roster Photos tool displays official student Campus ID card photos to help instructors put a face to a name at the start of an academic term. Beginning in Fall 2017, instructors could also listen to student name pronunciations and see their preferred pronouns within the Roster Photos tool.
Students use the NameCoach web application (by way of Axess) to record their name pronunciations and to enter their pronouns. New or updated entries within NameCoach are picked up by the Roster Photos tool every time an instructor launches or refreshes the tool.
Within the Roster Photos tool, the instructional staff can download guidelines provided by Stanford’s Diversity and First-Gen Office and Queer Student Resources on how to respect students’ preferred pronouns in a classroom.