Course Access
When do faculty have access to courses?
Faculty will be enrolled in their courses several weeks before the start of a semester. At that time they may begin preparing their course for the upcoming semester.
When do students have access to courses?
Students will be enrolled in courses several weeks before the start of a semester but will not be able to view courses immediately. Students will be able to view published courses one week before the start of classes. If the course is not published by their faculty member they will not be able to see it until all courses are automatically published on the first day of the semester.
How long do students have access after the end of a semester?
Students are able to contribute to courses until one week after the semester. After that date, students will have view-only access to their courses and will not be able to submit assignments, etc.
How long do faculty have access after the end of a semester?
Faculty will continue to have full access to their courses.
Can I override the term dates to extend access for students?
Allowing students to modify course contributions after a semester ends is not recommended. However, if you would like to override the term dates to allow student edit access beyond one week after the end of the semester you can do so in the course settings. See the Canvas Guide:
How do I change the start and end dates for a course
Can I extend the access for one student?
If you have a student that requires extended access to the course (for an incomplete or other reason) and you would like only that student to have the ability to participate in the course, please contact the IT Service Desk.
Course Publishing
How do I publish my course?
You can publish your course from your course card in the Canvas Dashboard or from the home page of the course, simply click the Publish button. See the Canvas Guide:
How do I publish a course?
Will courses be automatically published in Canvas?
Each semester the courses in Canvas will be automatically published on or before the first day of the semester.
How will students know that a course is published?
When a course is published it will appear on their dashboard when they log in to Canvas but they
will not receive an automatic notification from Canvas. If you wish to send a notification to the students we suggest using the Announcements feature and they’ll receive an email notification. See the Canavs Guide:
How do I use Announcements?
What do the students see when I publish the course?
Students will see all content that is marked as ‘Published’ (with the green checkmark) and any navigation items that have not been hidden. Check the Student View to see exactly what your students see when you publish. Note: You’ll need to publish the course before it can be previewed in Student View. See the Canvas Guide:
How do I view a course as a test student using Student View?
How do I hide navigation items that I don’t want my students to see?
How do I unpublish content (modules, pages, assignments, etc)?
You can unpublish content by clicking the green checkmark or the green publish button to toggle. See the Canvas Guides:
How do I add a Syllabus to my course?
If your syllabus is not ready you may also simply type a note saying when the syllabus will be avaiable.
How do I unpublish a course?
If you need to unpublish your course, click the Unpublish button in the sidebar. Students will not be able to access your course. See the Canvas Guide:
How do I publish a course? (scroll to the bottom for the unpublish instructions)
Note: Once your course contains a graded submission, the course status will no longer display in the sidebar and you will no longer be able to unpublish your course.
Sandbox Course
What is a sandbox?
All faculty have a dedicated course space in Canvas to build and try things out. This space isn't an assigned course and does not have students enrolled - it's just a place to play. Canvas refers to these courses as sandboxes. Faculty may use their sandbox course to test features, draft course content and familiarize themselves with the new system. The sandbox courses will be titled with “sandbox” to distinguish them between the live courses. Information added can be copied to the live course.
Will my sandbox course be published?
No, your sandbox course will not be published and will not have students enrolled. Sandbox courses are for testing and development only. Information added can be copied to the live course.
How do I copy my course content from sandbox (or other course) to my live course?
Archiving / Backing up a Course
Can I download / archive my course content?
Faculty can always download the course to archive the content. The downloaded course is saved as a common cartridge (imscc file), which can be imported into another Canvas course or into many other learning management systems. It is good practice to archive your course each semester so you have a copy, however, it is not necessary to do so. See the Canvas Guide:
Exporting your course content for archiving purposes.