How do I customize visibility options for a course?

Course visibility options can be customized and allow access to different user roles. The visibility setting offers three choices for a course:

  • Course: The course is available to all users associated (enrolled) in the course. This option is the default setting.
  • Institution: The course is available to users associated with this institution. This option allows users in your institution to view your course before they enroll in the course. For this option, users can only view the course if course self-enrollment is enabled or the course is included in the Public Course Index. The course content shown to authenticated users is the same content shown to the public for publicly visible courses.
  • Public: The course is available to anyone with the URL. If a public course is unaccessible to unauthenticated users, your institution may require a login and password to view all courses within their Canvas instance.

As part of course visibility, you can also customize content visibility.

To learn more about visibility options, view the Canvas Course Visibility Options resource document.

Note: If the Visibility option cannot be changed, you do not have permission to manage visibility settings. Please contact your Canvas administrator or Canvas Support for assistance.

Open Settings

Open Settings

In Course Navigation, click the Settings link.

Open Course Details

Open Course Details

Click the Course Details tab.

Set Visibility

Set Visibility

In the Visibility options, the default is set to Course.

To change the visibility, click the Visibility menu and select the visibility option you prefer [1].

If the Visibility option cannot be changed, you do not have permission to manage visibility settings [2]. Please contact your Canvas administrator or Canvas Support for assistance.

Customize Content Visibility

Customize Content Visibility

If you also want to customize content visibility, such as the course syllabus, click the Customize checkbox.

Update Course Details

Update Course Details

Click the Update Course Details button.