Canvas Course Availability Dates

Owned by Maria Shimel, created
Last updated: Apr 19, 2022 by Maddie Heaton
4 min read

FAQs:

  • Q: I am a faculty member who wants to access and interact with a past semester’s course site. I no longer see this course on my Canvas Dashboard. What do I do now?

  • A: Edit Course Availability Dates in Canvas

 

  • Q: I am a student who would like to view a past semester’s course site.

  • A: Contact your instructor with this request and they can extend course availability dates if they approve the request.

This Knowledge Article is meant to provide an overall understanding of how Canvas Course Availability Dates are set in Middleware and then can be edited from both Middleware and/or Canvas.

Why might an Instructor want to Edit their Course Availability Dates?

  • Sometimes faculty like to make their Course Sites available to students the week or weekend prior to the start of instruction.

  • An instructor might need to make edits to the course after the class has ended, an example of this is making a course available to a student Completing an Incomplete or for altering Grades.

  • Any other reason the instructor sees fit.

Creating your Canvas Course in Middleware:

Course Availability Dates are first set when an instructor Requests their Canvas Course Site from Middleware.

Unavailable

  • The course will receive no availability dates, and will be created automatically set as Unavailable to users.

  • The instructor will manually need to make the course available to students.

Available to Students

  • The course will receive no availability dates, and will be created automatically set as Available to users.

  • The instructor will manually need to make the course unavailable to students if no end-dates are applied to the Canvas course.

Start of Term

  • The course date will be set to automatically become available on the first day of the semester and unavailable 1 week after the semester ends.

  • The instructor does not need to do anything to make the course available other than be aware of when these date’s occur in case students have questions.

Start of Session

  • This option will automatically pull up the Start Date of the Session and offer the instructor a chance to edit it immediately. The session will close one week after the end of instruction.

  • The instructor does not need to do anything to make the course available other than be aware of when these date’s occur in case students have questions.

Date

  • This will automatically make the course available on a specific date set by the Instructor.

  • No end-date will be applied, this can be applied in Canvas or the course can be made manually unavailable by the instructor.

Two Ways to Edit Availability Dates

1) Edit Availability Dates in Middleware

Course Availability Dates can be edited in Middleware.

screenshot of middlware. on a created course, the Course actions button is extended. Edit course option is highlighted.

  • Select Next until you can select Update. The course dates will be updated on Canvas within 15 minutes.

2) Edit Course Availability Dates in Canvas

If a Faculty member needs to extend Canvas Availability End Dates after the semester/session/term ends, this is the recommended process.

Course Availability Dates can be edited in Canvas too.

To do this:

  • Go to Canvas and select the Course Site you want to work on.

  • Select Settings from the course layout menu.

  • You will land on the Course Details tab. Scroll down, locate "Participation," select the dropdown menu and select Course.

  • Insert/Edit the Start and End Date for the course.

  • Select Update Course Details at the bottom of the screen to save the change. This change will reflect immediately in Canvas.

 

 

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