Courses are open, closed, active, inactive, archived, sunsetted...?

[cliff_cunningha]

I provide local Canvas support at University of Wisconsin-Madison. I would like an overview of all options pertaining to the life cycle of a Canvas course.

I understand about creating courses. (We have an automated system for our time-table courses, and we can create courses manually.)

I understand about course "Start" and "End" dates. (We deal with those all the time.)

But, I hear phrases like, courses being "closed"... or "archived"... or "sunsetted"...

Maybe these are simply synonyms for "past the End Date".

But, that is only a guess. Are there more management, or administrative statuses that a course might go through in it's life?

I haven't seen any... but, it's hard to prove a negative.

Thx in advance.

[Chris_Hofer · Accepted solution]

Hi @cliff_cunningha ...

Nice to see someone from the Madison area here in the Community.  (I used to live in Fond du Lac.)

This will be only a partial answer for you, but it seems like some of the terminology that you've provided (archived, sunsetted, etc.) is just terminology that a particular school uses for their purposes.  I can't recall ever seen any official documentation from Canvas where they use the word "sunsetted", for example.  You may have seen these two Guides, but I wanted to share the links with you just in case...and for others who might be reading this as well:

• How do I delete a course in an account as an admin... - Instructure Community - 119 (canvaslms.com)
• How do I conclude a course at the end of a term as... - Instructure Community - 226 (canvaslms.com)

This is just my guess, but you may get some additional responses here from other schools where they use different terminology...and hopefully they'll provide some explanation as to what they mean when they use that vocabulary.

Again, I know this isn't a full response, but I hope it will help in some way.

[talway]

I too am interested in this.  We are having conversations about how long we should keep courses after they have been used.  I was wondering if there was a batch archive feature available. 

[JasonSimmons · Accepted solution]

Hello @talway this is to answer more of your question, but also somewhat applicable to @Chris_Hofer and  @cliff_cunningha .  Yes, Instructure does offer an archiving solution so institutions can archive their aging course content and student data. The data can also be retrieved at any time. See the link below:

https://www.instructure.com/services/canvas-archiving

Best,
Jason

[Chris_Hofer · Accepted solution]

Hi @cliff_cunningha ...

Nice to see someone from the Madison area here in the Community.  (I used to live in Fond du Lac.)

This will be only a partial answer for you, but it seems like some of the terminology that you've provided (archived, sunsetted, etc.) is just terminology that a particular school uses for their purposes.  I can't recall ever seen any official documentation from Canvas where they use the word "sunsetted", for example.  You may have seen these two Guides, but I wanted to share the links with you just in case...and for others who might be reading this as well:

• How do I delete a course in an account as an admin... - Instructure Community - 119 (canvaslms.com)
• How do I conclude a course at the end of a term as... - Instructure Community - 226 (canvaslms.com)

This is just my guess, but you may get some additional responses here from other schools where they use different terminology...and hopefully they'll provide some explanation as to what they mean when they use that vocabulary.

Again, I know this isn't a full response, but I hope it will help in some way.

[cliff_cunningha]

Thank you, Chris.

This is good to hear at least one other person's perspective. Although it's hard to prove a negative... the absence of other things cropping up is almost the same as "proof".

And... the "concluding" of a course is about the only thing I know about. 

So... it sounds like there is a course "End" date... and then there is the "Conclude this course". That seems like that is it.

I can work with that. If anyone else is aware of any other process... any other handling of Canvas course shells... please, let me know.

Thx, again, Chris.