Default Time for Course Start/End Date

[DanielAllen]

Two questions:

1. Why is it necessary to change a course start/end date in Settings twice? I have to click Settings, change these dates, then click on Section at the top of Settings and then click "Edit Section" to do the same date modification.

2. When I do the first date change in Settings, why is the default time 12:00am? Canvas automatically chooses this time as its default, then tells you "Course participation is set to expire at midnight, so the previous day is the last day this course will be active." Okay, then why make 12:00am the default time if it means the date I choose will not actually be the date the course starts/ends?

[greydon]

Hello @DanielAllen 

The course start date is important for  a number of reasons but  many schools sync their rosters to Canvas using a SIS. Those rosters or  sections can have their own access dates to restrict or enable students from being able to participate in the course. This way, institutions have options if they want to use section dates, course dates, or term dates, etc. If you don't use a SIS you can essentially disregard the section date - it is not required.

The course settings time defaults to 12:00am when you first pick the actual date just for consistency sake, so that if the course is set to close on a certain date - the participants get until the very last minute to access or submit work. Meaning if you choose the course to have an end date of the 30th, the students get until the last second of  the 29th - the course is officially "closed" when the 30th hits. I know it may seem counter intuitive to not have the closed date expire at 11:59, but this way the date/time it closes means  it officially is closed on that date. You are welcome to change the time to whatever you would like, but hopefully this provides some clarification. 

[Chris_Hofer]

Hello there, @DanielAllen ...

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1. Why is it necessary to change a course start/end date in Settings twice? I have to click Settings, change these dates, then click on Section at the top of Settings and then click "Edit Section" to do the same date modification.

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When I was a Canvas administrator at my previous job, we only used start/end dates on the course "Settings" page (to my recollection).  We didn't have start/end dates in the "Sections" screen.  Our IT department sent a daily file for all of our course data, and that included the start/end dates which populated on the course "Settings" page.

Here are a couple Guides that might help:

• How do I change the start and end dates for a course?
• How do I change the start and end dates for a course section as an instructor?

So, I'm not sure that it's totally necessary for you to set the start/end dates in the "Sections" screen...if it's the only section in that course.  If you had courses that were cross-listed together, that might be a different story.  For example, if you had two sections of a course called "Board Games 101" that were cross-listed together, you might have one section that started on January 15th, but the other section started two days later...on January 17th.  So, that would be a reason to set dates on the "Sections" screen.

Other folks here in the Community might have better ideas on this than I do, so I'll let them respond...and also let them respond to your second question.  I hope this will help in some way.