# How do I publish a course?

If you have permission to publish your course, you can publish your course from the Dashboard, the Course Home Page sidebar, the Course Settings sidebar, or the [Course Setup Checklist](https://community.canvaslms.com/t5/Instructor-Guide/How-do-I-use-the-Course-Setup-Checklist/ta-p/1139).

**Notes:**

<div id="bkmrk-you-must-publish-a-c"><div>- You must publish a course before students can access it and its contents. Students cannot see unpublished courses and content.
- Publishing a course is a course permission. If you cannot publish your course, your institution has restricted this feature.
- Publishing your course will send invitations to any users who were manually added to your course. Users added via SIS import will not receive an invitation.
- Course invitations will not be sent until after the course start date. (The start date is commonly the term date, unless the term is being overridden by a specific course or section date in Course Settings.)
- If you are using a Free-for-Teacher account, you cannot publish a course until you have verified your email address.
- If your course has been published and includes grades, you cannot modify the course's published status.

</div></div>## Publish in Dashboard

<div data-step-uuid="3856d352-ed84-4354-9e08-5d696fa9cc7e" id="bkmrk-"><div data-step-uuid="3856d352-ed84-4354-9e08-5d696fa9cc7e"><div>[![Publish in Dashboard](https://media.screensteps.com/image_assets/assets/003/855/754/medium/953dc364-2978-456e-bc89-01425c516afc.png)](https://media.screensteps.com/image_assets/assets/003/855/754/original/953dc364-2978-456e-bc89-01425c516afc.png)</div><div><div></div></div></div></div>Locate the **Unpublished Courses** section in the Dashboard \[1\].

Find the course you want to publish and click the **Publish** button \[2\].

## Publish in Course

### Open Course

<div data-step-uuid="f4c3b901-317e-470a-b6e2-c70968af0341" id="bkmrk--0"><div data-step-uuid="f4c3b901-317e-470a-b6e2-c70968af0341"><div data-step-uuid="0869563c-1145-4820-aba4-1ee6a4a6615f"><div>![Open Course](https://media.screensteps.com/image_assets/assets/007/952/798/original/575b7320-541d-474b-92b4-9bf125955c20.png)</div><div><div></div></div></div></div></div>In Global Navigation, click the **Courses** link \[1\]. Your courses will be organized by published courses \[2\] and unpublished courses \[3\]. To open an unpublished course, click the name of the course \[4\].

### Publish Course

<div data-step-uuid="f4c3b901-317e-470a-b6e2-c70968af0341" id="bkmrk--1"><div data-step-uuid="f4c3b901-317e-470a-b6e2-c70968af0341"><div data-step-uuid="643bb8a6-19ce-4707-b8f5-c8bef8e7dec1"><div>![Publish Course](https://media.screensteps.com/image_assets/assets/008/576/673/original/791d61a1-733b-415b-a050-c3c3e7b5a9c7.png)</div><div><div></div></div></div></div></div>The course status displays in the Course Home Page sidebar and the [Course Settings sidebar](https://community.canvaslms.com/t5/Instructor-Guide/How-do-I-set-details-for-a-course/ta-p/1037).

To publish your course, click the Course Status dropdown menu \[1\]. Then click the **Publish** button \[2\].

**Note:** On smaller screens, the sidebar may display beneath other page content.

### View Confirmation

<div data-step-uuid="f4c3b901-317e-470a-b6e2-c70968af0341" id="bkmrk--2"><div data-step-uuid="f4c3b901-317e-470a-b6e2-c70968af0341"><div data-step-uuid="33FA9ABE-3E5D-4628-8493-236056731A3D"><div>![View Confirmation](https://media.screensteps.com/image_assets/assets/000/749/356/original/40138966-a621-4893-be17-1d299feb48c4.png)</div><div><div></div></div></div></div></div>A message will appear at the top of your screen confirming the publishing of your course.

### Unpublish Course

<div data-step-uuid="f4c3b901-317e-470a-b6e2-c70968af0341" id="bkmrk--3"><div data-step-uuid="f4c3b901-317e-470a-b6e2-c70968af0341"><div data-step-uuid="5add6b9c-9921-4a93-ad01-28517be4a4af"><div>![Unpublish Course](https://media.screensteps.com/image_assets/assets/008/576/675/original/c0d6e6c9-7759-44e6-8243-613ae7993a6c.png)</div><div><div></div></div></div></div></div>If you need to unpublish your course, click the Course Status dropdown menu \[1\]. Then click the **Unpublish** button \[2\]. Students who already received course invitations will not be able to access your course.

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.

\[Content retrieved from [https://community.canvaslms.com/t5/Instructor-Guide/How-do-I-publish-a-course/ta-p/1185](https://community.canvaslms.com/t5/Instructor-Guide/How-do-I-publish-a-course/ta-p/1185)\]