Concluding a Course - Is There a Difference Between Using Course End Dates and Concluding the Course

[rpsimon]

Is there a difference between using the "Course Dates" in the Course Settings and clicking on the "Concluding a Course" in the Course Settings?

I don't think that there is but just want to double check.

Thanks. 

[nwilson7 · Accepted solution]

@rpsimon There is actually a HUGE difference.  Using course dates can be undone and ultimately is only affecting the students not the instructor.   Canvas refers to this as a "soft conclude" (or at least their support did when I posed this same question to them).  The Conclude button is the "hard conclude" and there is no going back.  It puts everything in read only mode and makes many tasks harder to accomplish like looking at old data or submissions.  Most tasks can still be done but more steps are involved.

I recommend you also read the top green section of this guide that explains this in more detail How do I conclude a course at the end of a term as an instructor? 

Hope this helps!

-Nick

[rpsimon]

Thanks so much @nwilson7.  I really appreciate this.  The reason that I am asking is because I am going to start closing or concluding courses before I start pulling end of course grade data for report cards after midterm and final exams.  I want to make sure that teachers don't edit the students' grades so it sounds like "manually concluding the course" or "hard concluding" the course as you referred to it would be the best way to go.  

[nwilson7]

@rpsimon do you ever have "incompletes" or allow for grade disputes?  Those would be the only two scenarios that I would have caution concluding a course. Otherwise I understand your reasoning and agree with you.

We do allow for both of these so we actually now run courses 1 extra year so it is easy for both the instructor and potential students to finish in the event of an incomplete.  We do allow faculty to put in their own course dates and override our term dates if they so choose.  

-Nick

[rpsimon]

Nope.....we might put a I on a report card but we haven't had that as a grade in a Canvas course.  Honestly, doing whatever I can to make my life easier would be helpful.  My principal wants the courses closed and locked so teachers can no longer edit them.  I explained that I would have to "unconclude the course" in order to teachers to edit any grade data.  So since this is all a cumbersome process, I want to make sure I make it as easy as possible for myself.  🙂