The Student Preview feature provides faculty a way to see the course exactly how a student would see it. It allows faculty to easily transition into and out of a system-managed preview account that is automatically enrolled in the course as a Student. This provides all the advantages of a "pseudo-student" account while eliminating the need to login twice. The Student Preview provides an efficient way for faculty to confirm the design of their course content from the perspective of a student. It is also useful for confirming course behaviors such as time or date availability, adaptive release criteria, grade weighting, and other course behaviors that control what a student sees in the course or require some particular interaction from the student to be triggered.

To enter Student Preview mode, click the button that is shaped like an eye, next to the Course Themes and Edit Mode buttons, in the upper right corner. While in Student Preview mode, the faculty member can interact with the course as a student, including taking quizzes or tests, submitting assignments, posting to forums, posting to blogs, etc.

Clicking the Student Preview button again exits the preview mode. Upon exit, the faculty member is prompted as to whether the preview student, and all of the data created as the preview student, should be deleted (the default) or kept. If data is kept, the faculty member can view the results of the preview activity, such as by viewing Assignment or Test submissions in the Grade Center. The preview student is clearly identified by the text "_previewuser" appended to the username and last name. Choosing to delete the data unenrolls the preview student from the course (and, if not in use in any other of the faculty member's courses, deletes it from the system). All activity conducted or created as the preview student is removed from the course permanently. This includes attempts, submissions, grades, posts, etc.