Canvas Course Access


Access to Canvas Courses:

By default, Canvas courses are made available to students at the start of the academic term. As a teacher, you can grant immediate access to your course by simply clicking the "Publish" button. This allows your students to begin engaging with and participating in course material as soon as the academic term begins.

Publishing Your Course 

You can publish your course from your Dashboard, your Course's home, or your settings page.

publish options shown from within course and on dashboard

Limiting Access Outside the Standard Academic Term

If you prefer to restrict access to your Canvas course outside the standard academic term, you can easily do so by following these detailed instructions. This will enable you to adjust the availability of your course so that students only have access to the material during the specified term.

In your course settings, under Course Details, scroll down to Participation.

course settings is highlighted and arrow pointing to course details and participation is boxed

Below the participation dates, two checkboxes restrict student access to the course before and after the specified dates. To restrict students' access to viewing course content, ensure these boxes are checked. By default, these boxes are unchecked in every Canvas course at Auburn University.

term restriction boxes highlighted checked and not checked

Scroll to the bottom of the page and click Update Course Details before exiting the screen.

update course details highlighted with orange arrow pointing

 

 

Participation in Canvas Courses:

After a course, it enters a "read-only" mode for both teachers and students, meaning that interactions with the course material are no longer possible. However, we can re-activate the course, allowing for further engagement and interaction. Once the course has been re-opened, you can adjust the end date as necessary via the Settings option. After the new end date is reached, the course will revert to "read-only" mode again, preventing further interactions. This gives you control to manage and provide timely access as required.

Please note that once a course has ended, special arrangements must be made to re-open it. If you require extended access to your course after its official conclusion, contact the Biggio Tech team at bighelp@auburn.edu for assistance. Be aware that adjusting the availability dates for a course will grant access to all students, not just specific students. It is recommended to set specific time frames for students who need to complete their coursework.

Modifying Course Dates

You can find the details on modifying course dates below: 

Click on Settings from the course navigation, then ensure you are on the Course Details tab across the top of the page.

settings is highlighted with an orange box and arrow to course details tab on top of screen

By default, the course participation will be set to Term. Click the down arrow next to Term and choose Course.

term to course boxed and arrow

In the Start and End date boxes that are now available to edit, set the new dates you would like for your course to start and/or end.

participation set to course and December calendar pulled up selecting date beyond academic semester

Click Update Course Details at the bottom of the settings page to save the changes.

update course details with arrow