How do I change the start and end dates for a course?

By default, you and your students can participate in courses within the term start and end dates set forby yourITS. entireWhen institution.a Course is using the Term Dates, it will be locked to all users after the term end date.  However, as an instructor, you may need to change the participation start and end dates for your course. Dates can be shorter than or overlap the term dates. For more information, view the interactive interactive Student Course Visibility and Participation flowchart.

Use Case: Incomplete Grades

If a student receives an Incomplete, you may need to reopen the course to allow continued access. Canvas locks courses after the term ends unless you change the Participation setting to Course and set a new End Date.

LimitNote: UserIf you cannot change the Participation Datessetting, contact CETL for assistance.

About Course Access

By default, courses will be created with dates for their term. You can limitset useryour participationown dates for access by changing from Term to certainCourse datesParticipation bydates.

setting

Before the start date, students can accept course participationinvitations. dates.Once Participationthe meanscourse is published, they can then access the course to look at the content, but they cannot fully participate until the start date that is set for the course. During the window from the start to the end date, students can submit assignments, post discussions, upload files, or take part in any other action-based task within a course. If you set course participation dates, students can acceptAfter the courseend invitation, access the course, and look at content, but they cannot fully participate until the first day of the course. Whendate, the course is concluded,concluded the course isand placed in a read-only state.state for all users.

Note: You may want to leave the Course end date blank if you suspect student may need an incomplete. This keeps the course open indefinitly to let them completing any incomplete work. It aslo ensures you can grade that work, as you can no longer submit grades after the end date. 

Dashboard Considerations

The Student participation dates may also affect courses that have been marked as a favorite and display in the Dashboard. If a course includes course participation dates, students cannot participate in the course after the end date, and the course will be removed from the Dashboard.

Moreover, if term dates are being used as course participation dates, the course will not be removed from the Dashboard until the course is concluded via term dates.

Restrict Course Access

If you do not want students to view any content in the course until the course start date, Course Settings also allows you to restrict students from being able to access content. You can also choose to to restrict all course access after the course has concluded.

Notes:

• If you cannot change what is displayed in the Participation drop-down menu, your institution has restricted instructors from modifying course availability dates.
• You can only change the course end date when your enrollment is active. Course dates cannot be changed once your enrollment has concluded for the course.

How to Change the Course Dates

Open Settings

In Course Navigation, click the Settings link.

Open Course Details

Click the Course Details tab.

View Term Participation Dates

When ITS creates courses, they are assigned to use the Term Term Participation[1]2].  Courses using Term participation are set to follow the term start and end dates set for your entire institution [2]3].

If the Term option is selected in the Participation drop-down menu, you can view the term start and end dates [3]. Term dates can only be modified by a Canvas admin. After the end date, the course is locked into a read-only state for both the students and instructors. Any changes to the course dates, for example if a student receives an incomplete for the course, will need to be made before the End date when the course is locked.

To allow a student to continue participating in the course past the end date, or for you to continue grading student'sstudents' submissions past the end date, the Participation will need to be changed from Term to Course. Once the course is switched to Course Participation, you can set a new End date. If the End date has already pased,passed, instructors will need a Canvas Administrator to change the course dates for them. 

Notes:

• If the course is assigned to the Default Term and participation dates are set to follow term dates, or if no Course End date is set, students can participate in the course indefinitely.
• When setting a start and end date for a course, instructors can view local and course time zones set for the course [4] and the local time for the user [5].