Controlling Student Access to Your Course After it Ends
Did you know that by default, students’ access to your course changes to “read-only” after the end of the semester?
In 'read-only' mode, students will still have access to all published materials and files, but lose the ability to participate in course activities, including submitting any work for a grade.
If you still need students to submit work after the semester end date such as in the case of an incomplete, or if you would like to restrict access to your course so students can no longer read published materials and files after the end of the semester, you will need to change your settings (see below for the specific changes to be made.)
Remember, changes to the settings that control access can only be made by instructors prior to the end of the term - otherwise, to pull the course out of read-only mode, you will need to contact IT or Canvas support. (This may interfere with calculating and submitting final grades in the event of an incomplete, so please make sure to extend your settings accordingly prior to the end of the term if needed.)
This Weekly Tip will cover how to change student access to your course as necessary, before or after the semester.
How Does Student Access to Your Course Work?
All official IC courses are assigned a Term start and end date. These are the preset “course participation dates” in your Canvas course.
When you publish your course before any given term, students will have:
- Access to all published materials
- Ability to participate in course activities such as submitting assignments, discussions, etc.
After the term has concluded, the course automatically goes into “read-only mode” - meaning that students will still have access to all published materials and files but lose the ability to participate in course activities – including submitting assignments or quizzes.
When the course is in read-only mode, instructors are no longer able to create or edit assignments, post or edit grades, or create any new course content.
How to Restrict Student Access
Use this option if you want to restrict access from students completely before or after the course participation dates. It will hide your course from students completely - students will not be able to access the course and will not see the course on their course dashboard, even if it is published.
To restrict student access to your course:
1. Go to the Settings > Course Details section.
2. Select “Restrict student access to this course before term start date” and/or “Restrict student access to this course after term end date.”
3. Scroll down and Save your changes.
Remember that by default, these boxes are unchecked, allowing students to view their past courses in read-only mode.
Note: Instructors can only edit student access privileges prior to the end of the term or course. When the term or course end date passes, these checkboxes are grayed out and cannot be changed. (See below for instructions on requesting assistance if the course has already closed.)
How to Extend Student Access
If you need to extend student or instructor access to your course beyond the length of the term, such as in the case of an incomplete, you can set your own course end date. The process for this varies depending on whether it is before or after the end of the term.
If it is before the end of the term, first you will have to change your Course settings so that your course participation dates are set to be unique to your course, as opposed to pulling from the term dates by default.
1. Go to Settings > Course Details
2. From the ‘Participation’ drop down select “Course.” Now edit the participation dates to your specifications. If course dates are left blank, students can participate in the course indefinitely. Remember, participation means students can submit or re-submit work, participate in discussions, and potentially change work after the term has ended, so be cautious when granting this privilege. Courses in a concluded 'read-only' state still allow students to view their old submissions and content without altering or adding data.
3. Scroll down and Save your changes.
If it is after the end of the term, you will need to submit a request to re-open the course for editing.
To change the settings on student access for a past course, you can either file a service ticket with the Learning and Innovative Technologies department (allow 72 hours) https://help.ithaca.edu/TDClient/34/Portal/Requests/TicketRequests/NewForm?ID=-Hpr%7e6mEMXU_) or reach out to Canvas Support directly through the Help link in Canvas Global Navigation for 24/7, 365 assistance and support.
For more information on this topic, you can visit the following additional resources:
Additional Resources