Term start and end dates for Canvas course sites and how to change or restrict access

Environment

Canvas
Settings

Issue

When are students able to access a course and how to change or restrict their access?

Resolution.

• Course sites are provisioned beginning 180 days before the beginning of the term, see the Office of the Register’s academic calendar.
• Courses are given a term (Fall, Winter, etc) and corresponding term start and end dates (term dates are set for the entire Canvas instance and cannot be changed, see below how to change course dates).
  • Term start date is 6 weeks before the beginning of the term (see the Office of the Register’s academic calendar).
  • Term end date is 2 weeks after the end of the term (see the Office of the Register’s academic calendar).

Before Term

• Teachers, TAs, and Designers can access a course as soon as it is provisioned and they have been added to a section in the course (Teachers and TAs are added automatically based on the class schedule in MPathways).
  • Course sites are updated twice daily with MPathways enrollment data changes.
• Students can access a Canvas course once they have been added to a section (automatically based on their enrollment in MPathways) and it is published. 
  • Note: only Teachers can publish a course.
  • Students will not be able to participate (will have read-only access) in the course until the term start date.
  • Read-only access means that the course is not available for submitting assignments, posting discussions, uploading files, grading, or any other action-based task within a course. 

After Term

• Teachers, TAs, and Designers maintain full access to the course.
• Students will not be able to participate (read-only access) in the course after the term end date.

Change start and end dates for student participation

The start and end dates control when students are able to contribute to the course. Before and after these dates students will have access but not be able to participate (read-only). Instructors can change the start and end dates for the course by changing the participation from term to course.

1. In the Canvas course, click Settings in the left navigation menu.
2. On the Course Details tab change the Participation dropdown to Course.
3. Add a Start and End date using the calendar.
4. Scroll to the bottom and click Update Course Details.

Restrict student access before and after term

The instructor can restrict students from accessing the course at all before (after it's published) or after the end dates. Students will see a "Not yet available" or "Access denied" message if they try to access the course directly, however the course will no longer show on their dashboard.

1. In the Canvas course, click Settings in the left navigation menu.
2. On the Course Details tab check the box to Restrict students from viewing course before term start date and/or Restrict students from viewing course after term end date.
3. Scroll to the bottom and click Update Course Details.

For more details see Instructure's Student Course Visibility and Participation Flowchart.

More information on the implications of each option are available in the following Canvas articles:

• How do I restrict student access to a course before or after the course dates?
• How do term dates, course dates, and section dates work in Canvas?

Additional Information

• Check out the new Academic Technology@Michigan website for course planning resources from across U-M
• Visit the Canvas @ Michigan site for faculty including the U-M Instructor Guide with links to additional support resources from across campus
• Check out the Canvas and MiVideo tutorials

For additional questions, please contact the ITS Service Center