Student Access and Course Publication Setting Changes

SaraSpaniol

We are switching our Canvas settings at the account level starting Fall 2025 semester and I want to confirm I am understanding all the various term/course dates and restrictions correctly.

Past Settings: courses were synced and automatically published. If instructors did not want students to see course content, they had to unpublish the course and then re-publish content at the start of term. There were no restrictions on student access before or after the term dates.

NEW Settings:courses are synced and automatically published, BUT students cannot access the course until a few days prior to the term start date. Instructors continue to have access whenever the course is synced.

Example: 

Term Runs from	Aug 25, 2025 12:00am	to	Dec 18, 2025 11:59pm
Students can access from	Aug 22, 2025 12:00am	to	Dec 19, 2025 11:59pm
Teachers can access from	whenever	to	Dec 19, 2025 11:59pm
TAs can access from	whenever	to	term end
Designers can access from	whenever	to	term end

 

In addition, we have checked the following box at the account level:

 Restrict students from accessing courses before start date

My understanding of these settings is as follows (using the dates above):

• Courses appear under "future enrollment" for students until Aug. 22 AND are unable to be viewed until then, even if the course itself is published.
• Beginning Aug. 22, students can view the course but cannot "participate" until the term starts on Aug. 25. Instructors would need to unpublish any information they don't want visible by the 22nd.
• Beginning Aug. 25, students can view AND participate in the course.

 

MY QUESTION:

Can someone CONFIRM that my understanding of these settings is correct?

Our goal is for students to see a course when they are enrolled but not have access to any content until a couple days prior to the course start. We also want instructors to be able to build/edit their courses without having to worry about students seeing old or outdated information prior to the student access date. I'm unclear how the student access dates and the "restrict access" checkbox work (i.e. do they produce the same or different outcomes?).

Any change will be better than our past process, but I'm trying to limit the workload on my instructors while streamlining appropriate access for students.

Thanks for your help! 

 

 

 

 

 

NoahBoswell

Hi there @SaraSpaniol ,

I've read through your message a few times just to make sure I had a clear understanding of your set up. When it comes to checking off on the box that restricts students from viewing the course before the start date, this course will not appear in future enrollments, even if restrict students from viewing future enrollments at the root-account level is disabled. However, with the section start and end dates, those are just dates students are able to actually participate in the course (like reply to discussions and submit assignments). If the student accesses the course before the start or after the end date, and the 'restrict students from viewing this course after the start or end date' is not enabled, they will be able to see the course in their future enrollments and will be able to access it from there, as long as the course is published. If the course is unpublished, students will have access to see the course in their future enrollments, but won't be able to actually open it. If that checkbox is enabled, then they will see it in their future enrollments, however won't be able to access the course, regardless of publication status.

Does this make sense? PLEASE ask if you need further clarification or if I didn't explain something well enough!

Noah