[Reports] Include custom enrollment start and end dates in reports and UI

[AlbertoPoggiani]

Problem statement:

Canvas SIS import files support enrolment dates (start_date and end_date), to override section/course/term dates as per https://canvas.instructure.com/doc/api/file.sis_csv.html

Once uploaded via SIS import anyway the only way to query the enrolment dates is via API (querying for example /api/v1/courses/courseId/enrollments) Enrolment dates are missing from:

• UI: TCs/Teachers cannot see if any override has been applied to student enrolment
• Reports: Missing enrolment dates in the enrolment provisioning report make also impossible to download and re-upload the report to make changes (e.g. re-activate enrolments), as this would blank any start/end date previously set
• Documentation: documentation about enrolment dates is incomplete; documentation only refers to terms, course, section dates without mentioning enrolment dates; these are only documented in the "SIS Import Format Documentation" https://canvas.instructure.com/doc/api/file.sis_csv.html

Proposed solution:

1: Update documentation

- https://canvas.instructure.com/doc/api/file.sis_csv.html

o Add a note together with other start and end date notes, specifying that when course or section start and end dates are entered on the import file, student participation within those dates will automatically be selected.

- https://community.canvaslms.com/t5/Instructor-Guide/How-do-I-assign-an-assignment-to-a-course-sectio...

o There is no reference to Section dates validation or the flag "Students can only participate in the course between these dates" – this should be included in this page.

- Additionally, No reference is made to enrolment dates in the below documents:

• https://community.canvaslms.com/t5/Canvas-Basics-Guide/How-do-term-dates-course-dates-and-section-da...
• https://community.canvaslms.com/t5/Canvas-Resource-Documents/Terms-Courses-and-Section-Enrollments/t...
• https://community.canvaslms.com/t5/Canvas-Resource-Documents/Student-Course-Visibility-and-Participa...

2: Extend Canvas UI to include enrolment dates:

• Page https://xyz.instructure.com/courses/123/users
• Page https://xyz.instructure.com/courses/123/users/456
• Page https://xyz.instructure.com/courses/123/sections/789

3: Fix the reports to include enrolment start_date and end_date

• Provisioning Report
• SIS Report
• Any other report containing enrolment data

User role(s):

admin,instructor,student,ta

[KristinL]

Hi @AlbertoPoggiani -

The Canvas LMS documentation team is reviewing the guides you mentioned in your proposal, and it sounds like they have a plan in place to update the changes so it will be noted that SIS enrollment  CSV files that include start_date and end_date values override term/course/section dates. Thank you for bringing that to our attention.

On any guide in the Community, at the very bottom of the page, you should see a Leave Feedback button. If you find inaccurate information, typos, or feel something is unclear, you are welcome to send your comments directly to the documentation team that oversees the particular guide.

[jpoulos]

Thanks for your submission! Based on what's being asked here, I've created a new theme that I think this would fit well with. It's called Expose back-end data more readily throughout Canvas. I've associated this idea to the theme.