How an admin can enable the unlock feature of a course?

[joel_taylor]

I am trying to add a staff member to an archived course from two years ago. I cannot add them under People > + People because the button "+ People" is greyed out. 

This post from Canvas.Yale.edu says that there is a button in Settings > Unlock Course that will enable me to unarchive the course and then add the staff member (and relock the course). However, I do not see this button in settings.

I looked through the forums but I have not found any reference to this button, nor a place where the "Unlock Course" button can be enabled or disabled. Does anyone know how I can enable the "Unlock Course" button, another method to temporarily unarchiving a course or adding a staff member to an archived course?

[chriscas · Accepted solution]

Hi @joel_taylor ,

Assuming you're a Canvas administrator...  That button you're referring to is, to the best of my knowledge, a custom thing added by Yale.  In a default Canvas installation, you need to go to course settings and either change the term to a current one, or change the course participation to the course setting, and set up the open date before the current day and the closing after the current day (but also make note of the original settings so you can restore them later). Once you do one of those things, you can go in to people and make the adjustment(s) you want.  After inviting the people, you'll want to act as each one of them and accept the course invites. Then finally, you'll want to go back to course settings and restore the term and/or the participation settings and dates to their original values.

Hope this helps!

-Chris