Limiting Course Date Access

[sbeck1]

Has anyone removed access for instructors to change the course start and end dates? I cannot find a place in the account settings or the permissions to remove this access. We do not want courses to open early or stay open after the term. Any suggestions? Thanks in advance for your help!

[bneporadny]

Hi Shandy,

There currently isn't a way to remove the ability for an instructor to change the course start and end dates from within Canvas.  The only way to make this happen would be to add some #custom javascript‌ to your Canvas instance that would remove/hide that option for anyone with an enrollment type of #teacher_enrollment‌.

[snugent]

If you are using Terms, you can control when the courses start to display for teachers in their course list. We give our teachers access to future courses at mid-term of the current semester so they can prepare their courses. We leave the courses open for one week after the semester closes using Term dates (that match course/section dates). Once the term closes our teachers have read only access (courses are listed under past courses) and students don't have access.  

• How do I use the Terms page in an account?

[bneporadny]

Susan,

That is a very good point that you can use that, but that does not stop the instructor from going into the course settings page and changing the access dates for students from within there, but that did jog my memory of another way you can facilitate access to courses which can be done at the account and sub-account levels.  Shandy Beck you may want to take a look at the documentation refrerence below about How do I restrict student access before or after a course date at the account level?

https://community.canvaslms.com/docs/DOC-10790-4214332318

[snugent]

We use section dates which override course dates. Our instructors cannot change course dates. 

[tlampley]

Greetings snugent

Nor should they   All types of shenanigans could occur!

One question though...How does accommodate the context of "incomplete" grading  within Canvas, or do you?  Some institutions, for example, leave it as a completely manual process.

I look forward to your reply and have a SUPER Day!

[snugent]

As the admin I create a section in the course for the incomplete student and set the dates on the section. I add the instructor and student to the incomplete section. This grants the students extended access to the course and gives the instructor read/write access to the course. This will also override term dates. 

[tlampley]

Interesting strategy!

With our instance of Canvas, we have our Term-start/end-dates, and then exception dates for Teacher, Student, TAs, and Designers to access a course before the Course-start/end-dates (These are set by the district, and cannot be altered by faculty).  Prior access, of course, allows teachers, designers, and TAs to prepare their production shells; and as faculty permit: allow students to become better acquainted with the course syllabus and navigation of the course before it starts.

There are two conditions by which a course auto-concludes (within our instance): submission of final grades by the teacher to our system of record (Colleague), and when the Term-end-date is reached.  Regarding the first, students that had final grades submitted are set to "Inactive" Status. This allows student that are "incomplete" to continue access to the course, without permitting "participation access" from those who crossed the finish line.  Length of time set is per the manual Incomplete Grade Contract, between the faculty and student--processed by enrollment services--with an end-date no later than the Term-end-date.

I always appreciate seeing "how the other half lives" (or at least administrates their Canvas instances)

Have a SUPER Day!

[s_j_beale]

End dates supersede terms - I still find that strange given that terms are supposed to be account level functionality (for admins) with end dates at the individual course level (for instructors).