Overview

With default settings in Canvas, students cannot access Canvas courses until the instructor publishes the course site. At the end of the term, the course automatically enters a read-only state for instructors and students. The read-only state allows users to view course content, but not interact with the content. Students do not have access to quiz details (questions and answers) in read-only sites. Learn more information on what read-only state means for students and instructors in Canvas.

Restricting Student Access

Instructors can enable options in their course settings to restrict student access to course content after the term has ended. These options need to be enabled by the instructor of the course prior to the end of the term. The options can be accessed through the course Settings > Course Details tab. The options are as follows: 

  • Restrict students from viewing course after end date
  • Restrict students from viewing course before start date

Instructors do not need to manually enter Start and End dates for the course. The Start date will automatically populate when the instructor publishes the Canvas site. The End date will never automatically populate, but will use the Term End date that is set in Canvas (the first day of the subsequent term).

To restrict student access to course content when the default End date is reached, the steps are:

  1. Navigate to the course in Canvas
  2. Click Settings in the course menu
  3. Ensure you are on the Course Details tab
  4. Check the box for "Restrict students from viewing course after end date"
  5. Scroll to the bottom of the page and click Update Course Details

Overriding Term End Date

If instructors want to override the term end date (not recommended), they can manually enter a date and time into the Ends date field. Read more information on manually settings course Start and End dates.

Manually-entered dates will copy over to a new course during the import process and can cause the course to be in a read-only state for instructors and read-only or restricted to students. We do not recommend faculty manually enter Start and End dates for courses as a standard practice.

It is possible to restrict student access without manually entering dates (see steps above).