Set early access date for all courses?

[juking]

We are currently in the beginning stages of migrating to Canvas.  Is it possible to have all courses open a certain number of days before the start date?  In Blackboard, we have it set to one week.  I didn't see that option in the admin settings.

[rpsimon · Accepted solution]

Hi  @juking ‌!  Yes, you can definitely do that.  When you say "start date," what do you mean exactly?  Are you saying that you want the teachers to have access to the courses before the term actually begins?  If so, here's how to do it.  This is will be in the Admin Console under "Terms."

You can just click on the pencil icon in the upper right hand corner to edit whatever you need to edit.  (If your window is not maximized, you might not see the pencil.  Been there done that!  )

Now, if you are looking to edit the access of individual courses, you can do that as well by going into that specific course (which I don't think you are because this takes a lot more time), you can change that specific course availability by going into the Course Settings, and then to Course Details, and modify the term dates for this specific course.

Hope this helps.  Please let us know if you have any additional questions.

[juking]

I am asking about opening all courses ahead of the start date for students.  Some students use the information in the course to find their books and other information.

[rpsimon]

Thanks for the info.  That definitely helps.  So all you need to do is change the dates of access by students in the terms.  Another option is to go into the Admin Console and then to "Settings."  Under the "Settings" tab, scroll down and you will find the following. Make sure that "Restrict students from accessing courses before start date" is unchecked.

[juking]

Thanks so much; this is very helpful.  I may be worrying needlessly, but I'm trying to head off any issues early in this process.  My concern is that we have a crazy academic calendar, and modules start all times of the semester.  So while we do have a field for the 3 semesters, we don't have any type of identifier for the other modules that start every 5 or 6 weeks.  Can a date be used instead of a term field?

[rpsimon]

Could you please share a screenshot of what you are trying to do?  I just want to make sure that I understand you correctly.  For the courses (or modules) that start at different times, why not just create a completely different term for those?  That way you will have a different term schedule for each one.

[juking]

I wish I had a screenshot.  Here's the deal:  We have 3 full semesters which are named (this year) 20202, 20203, 20204.  Spring, summer, fall of 2020.  That's the easy part.  However, we have within those semesters 8-week modules in our adult and online programs.  The second module of these would begin halfway through the semester, and both use the term for the semester, i.e. 20203.  Now here is where it gets crazy.  Our graduate programs and one-year completion programs have courses that start every 5 weeks.  All. Year. Long.  A student can enter the program at any point.  It's hit or miss as to which semester they will place on these modules.  Most fall within the semester, but many of the courses extend into the next semester.  The problem is we do not have unique term identifiers for each of these modules.  This might be something we need to address if there is no way to set the course opening date for students by date, instead of term identifier.  

[rpsimon]

Honestly, I would just go ahead and add those additional unique term identifiers for each of those modules.  It sounds like this will play an important role in the "big picture" of things.  What SIS are you using?

[juking]

We are using a proprietary SIS, created by one of our Board members.  We use csv file upload to get data to the LMS.  I'm curious about your use of the words Section and Course.  I know the difference, but our courses and sections are one, so they wouldn't have separate dates.  Does that make sense?  Unless I am misunderstanding...  Our courses are named with the section number as part of the course ID. 

[James]

A sweeping generalization is: Courses hold content. Sections are a grouping of students.

Sections may be the same as what is defined in your SIS, but they do not have to be. I could use sections to define by other characteristics like students needing accommodations, males, females, dual credit students, etc. The sections that come defined by our SIS only know a student enrolled in section 01 or section 02 of MATH 113.

Some schools use course and section as the same. I combine both of my MATH 113 sections into the same course so that I only have to have the content and assignments created once and I can give them to both sections at the same time.

A person can be enrolled in either a course or a section. We enroll teachers in courses (only have to do it once no matter how many sections are in that course) and students in sections.

The official Canvas documentation explaining the difference is https://community.canvaslms.com/docs/DOC-10770 

This Community thread has a lot more information: Understanding Courses and Sections 

[juking]

Thank you for that explanation. I'll have to process this as it pertains

to our unique SIS.

Julie King

Educational Technology Specialist

334.386.7396

On Wed, Jul 15, 2020 at 11:34 AM james@richland.edu <instructure@jiveon.com>

[rpsimon]

Our SIS was created by one of the members in our Tech Dept.  The way we do ours is as follows: 

4 digit year - semester number - 4 digit course number - 2 digit section number

So for example 2020-S2-0035-01

[James]

You do not have to have a term for each combination, but as Rebecca mentioned, it may be more convenient if there are lots of courses that fit into the same pattern. Some people have complained about lack of organization within the terms and it clutters the interface as you now have to scroll through perhaps 30 terms instead of 3. That's 30 terms per year and Canvas keeps all of the terms around for a while, so in a few years ...

When appropriate checkboxes are selected, section dates override course dates and course dates override term dates. Just specifying a date for a course or section is not sufficient to have it override the term date. This lesson from the Canvas Instructor Guide provides more information: https://community.canvaslms.com/docs/DOC-26522-how-do-i-change-the-start-and-end-dates-for-a-course 

[rpsimon]

Yes, I mentioned above that the selection dates for courses override the term dates; however,  @juking ‌ would have to go into each course manually and adjust the dates. 

[James]

You can specify dates for both sections and courses through a SIS import. There is no need to manually adjust them unless you are not using SIS import.

[rpsimon]

OK that definitely makes more sense!  And good to know....    We have 12th grade classes that end earlier than the other classes.  I could definitely see manually changing a 2 or 3 classes' terms, but not 100!