Change Course Access Dates For Students
Official courses in Canvas are automatically set to:
- begin on the first scheduled day of class at 7am.
- conclude three weeks past the last scheduled day of class.
However, faculty may adjust dates to allow early access for students, if needed.
IMPORTANT: California Ed Code and District policy prohibit beginning instruction prior to the first day of an official term. Faculty may provide access to the course syllabus and basic content, but students cannot be required to submit work or participate in the class prior to the official start date.
Change Course Access Dates
IMPORTANT: Note that course Start/End dates must be edited in TWO places.
To adjust the Start date to allow early access to students:
1. Edit the Course dates:
- go to Settings
- on the Course Details tab, edit the Start or End date
- click Update Course Details
2. Edit the Section dates:
- click the Sections tab
- click the section name
(edit each section if there are more than one) - click Edit Section
- edit the Start or End date
- click Update Section
- click Back to Course Settings
- click the Course Details tab
- click Update Course Details
IMPORTANT: A course must be Published to be visible to students.
Early Read-Only Access
Read-only provides students access to the course, the syllabus and non-date restricted content. Students will not be able to submit assignments, discussions, or quizzes. To provide students early read-only access, set the following Course Date Settings:
Course Start Date: Leave default course start dates
Course End Date: Leave default course end dates
Students can only participate in the course between these dates: CHECKED
Restrict students from viewing course before start date: UN-CHECKED
Restrict students from viewing course after end date: UN-CHECKED
With these settings, you can send students a message and post course announcements that will be visible in Canvas course.
- Students will receive a email notification if you send them a message.
- Students will not receive a email notification if you post a new course announcement. If you want the students to receive an email notification for announcements, you will need to open the course to Early Full Access.
Early Full Access
Early full access means starting the course before the official term start date. Students will be able to start the course and submit assignments/quizzes, unless you set individually available from/to dates on each assignment, quiz, or discussion. To fully open the course early, set the following Course Date Settings:
Course Start Date: Empty Field
Course End Date: Leave default term end dates
Students can only participate in the course between these dates: CHECKED
Restrict students from viewing course before start date: UN-CHECKED
Restrict students from viewing course after end date: UN-CHECKED
With these settings, you can send students a message and post course announcements that will be visible in Canvas course.
- Students will receive a email notification if you send them a message.
- Students will receive a email notification if you post a new course announcement.
See the Canvas Guides:
How do I change the start and end dates for a course?
Communicate With Students Early
Use MyBC
Faculty can use their official roster in MyBC Self-Service to email students before classes begin.
Use Canvas
Students are enrolled into Canvas on Wednesday the week before each semester.
If the course Start date has been adjusted and the course has been published, the instructor can use Announcements and the Inbox to communicate with students before the first scheduled day of class. A course must be Published in order to contact students with announcements or messages.
IMPORTANT: Class hasn’t started yet! Some students may still add the class after you have sent messages to the rest of the class, but before the course has officially begun. Be sure to repeat or clarify any information or announcements students may have missed.
See the Canvas Guides:
How do I send a message to all students using the Inbox?
How do I add an announcement in a course?
this was very helpful and easy to do. I wanted to edit/delete the course summary below my syllabus that had loaded all of my online quizzes, is there a way to do that?
Hi Jim,
The Course Summary is a standard part of the Syllabus page, and cannot be removed. This is typically helpful to students, as it provides a consolidated list of assignments and due dates. However, you might be interested to know that other Canvas users have suggested having the option to disable this feature, and that it may be updated in the future:
https://community.canvaslms.com/ideas/6601-option-to-exclude-assignments-from-syllabus
/ Chris P.
If your course has multiple combined sections and you want to give students early access, then changing the global start date and publishing is not enough. You need to go into the sections area within settings and change the start date of each section. Sneaky…
-Mike
Actually, you need to update the section date even if there is only a single section in the course (thus, step 2). However, this is NOT noted in the Canvas Guide on the topic.
Thanks Chris!