Add "Lock until date" to content pages

[linda_ohara]

This idea has been developed and deployed to Canvas

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This would add a level of control from the module to what is contained in them.

Having a lock on module availability is great but sometimes I would like to control when the contents of a module is seen. Availability dates for quizzes in modules is an obvious requirement. Why not have control for visibility of content pages?

Example: I have a "Study notes" module with a content page for every topic I lecture on. Each page contains study materials. I prefer not to let students see ALL materials at once so I have to remember to publish each content page when the time comes. Of course I forget once in a while. If I could set each of those pages to appear when needed, my worries would be over.

Thanks for your consideration.

[jordan]

Hi  @linda_ohara ​, and thanks for making this suggestion. Surprisingly this same concept was suggested by another community member, just yesterday -

I'm happy to let you know that we have another solution which you could leverage today! stefaniesanders​offered this simple alternative solution: https://community.canvaslms.com/ideas/2930#comment-21301

 @James ​ offered another solution that might work for you - https://community.canvaslms.com/ideas/2930#comment-21315

Will either of these solutions work for you, Linda?

[linda_ohara]

Jordan,

What does this mean create the key to an assignment as a file? Might work if I can understand that part. Thank you!

[Renee_Carney]

stefaniesanders​ can you help here?

[Renee_Carney]

There are great solutions here!

There have been great conversations in " modifiedtitle="true" title="Allow Pages to have release date functionality ​and " modifiedtitle="true" title="*content page delay post date and neither of those opened for voting.

It's time we give this concept a shot!  It will open for voting in November!

[James]

 @linda_ohara ​,

As daunting as it sounds, there's nothing special, mystical, or difficult about it. What was meant by "create the key to an assignment as a file" is that you could put your material into a document, like a PDF file or a Word document, instead of a Canvas HTML page, and then upload it into the course files. You can't easily control access to a page beyond publishing or unpublishing, but you can control when a file is visible to students.

[Stef_retired]

 @James ​, thanks for providing  @linda_ohara ​ with this explanation. As you read through it, you'll see that my post in the discussion to which Deactivated user linked is actually a response to someone who wanted to delay release of an answer key to a quiz, but the same approach, with some very slight tweaking, is equally applicable here. For your purposes,  @linda_ohara , you can interpret "you can create the key to an assignment as a file" as "you can open the content page, highlight all of the information in the content page you wish to make available at a specified time, copy it, open a document creator program (such as Word), paste the information into the document, and save it as a Word or PDF file." You can then follow the instructions provided in the link to add it to a module and control the release date of either the module or the file (or to be safe, both).

[linda_ohara]

Thanks for that information James but I don't see how to control the appearance of my files.

The action cog includes "Download" "Rename" "Move" "Delete" nothing about when students will see it, or not.

I am, however, pleased to see via Renee this will go to a vote beginning November...I was hoping for October of course but happy it made the vote cut.

I hope those of you here will vote often when the time comes, and spread the word! Thank you...

[Stef_retired]

 @linda_ohara , this is the lesson from the Canvas Guide on restricting access to files: How do I restrict files and folders to students in Canvas? To clarify, you would not focus your attention on the action cog, but rather on the colored cloud. Clicking on it will reveal an option to restrict access to the file, and the guide explains how to go about this in greater detail.

[linda_ohara]

It's November 4. Why can't I vote?

[linda_ohara]

Sorry for the delay...been busy, something called midterm exams...

It took me awhile to understand exactly what that all meant. Then I realized why it was foreign (unknown) to me, or so I think.

Philosophy adapted at my university is to use Modules and not allow the Files link to be available to students, meaning what you propose is, technically, not available as an option for me to pursue. Of course, use of Modules is only a guideline but we have found it works pretty well for students so I would rather not go down a different path.

Thanks for all the help.

Now I am hoping my idea will receive the necessary support so it will become a feature in Canvas!