[ARCHIVED] Automate publishing modules

[dianelaw_tutor]

I have modules loaded in Canvas for the entire semester.  Each week, I want to publish the week's Modules (Sunday 6:00 am) and unpublish them later in the week (Saturday 11:59 pm).  Right now, I have to manually do this and I'm not consistent with the time.  Is there a way to automate it? For example, I select the group of modules for the week, set a publish time and an unpublish time.

[scottdennis]

Hello,

Unfortunately this is not possible as of today, however there is an existing feature idea you may want to check out, along with a suggested work around by another teacher.  https://community.canvaslms.com/ideas/14572-publishunpublish-modules-automatically-by-date-and-time 

[Stef_retired · Accepted solution]

Hi,  @dianelaw_tutor  Welcome to the Canvas Community! When I was teaching I handled this by using availability dates. Specifically, here's what I did before the course start date:

• Created all course content (or imported the content from a previous course or from a master course).
• Created all modules for the course and organized the content by module (How do I add a module?).
• Added availability dates (available from...until) to all graded items (How do I add or edit details in an assignment?).
• Added available from dates to all the modules (How do I lock a module?).
• Published all content, including all of the modules.

This effectively automates the process. I didn't have to do anything manually with the content after that, and could occupy myself fully with teaching, facilitating, and grading. Students could see everything that was coming, ordered by due date, in the Course Summary, but couldn't interact with anything that had an availability date set in the future.

The only piece of your workflow that's missing here is closing the module after a certain point, but the availability dates on the graded activities themselves take care of that. In addition, I liked that students could return to the resources I had provided in past modules—so I wouldn't be inclined to hide or unpublish them.

Hope this gives you some ideas.