How do I remove previous courses from my dashboard?

[ssweeney818]

There are still a lot of courses from last semester on my dashboard. I am no longer in these classes, and they are distracting and clutter up the dashboard. How do I remove these courses from my dashboard?

[kmeeusen · Accepted solution]

Hi  @ssweeney818 ‌

You manage what courses display on your Dashboard, by managing your Courses list. Courses that display in your drop-down courses list, also display on your dashboard. When you remove a course from the drop-down, Canvas no longer displays it on the Dashboard.

Learn how at https://community.canvaslms.com/docs/DOC-10570-4212710327  While this How-To is for students, the process works the same for all users.

I hope this helps.

[JohnOwens · Accepted solution]

i found this:

"When no courses are favorited, the courses list automatically displays up to 20 courses alphabetically in the drop-down menu. However, once you have selected at least one course as a favorite, only your favorite courses will appear in the Courses list."

and since none of my semester's active classes have been published yet (so i'm unable to star any), this may be why i'm still seeing old classes that i've "un-favorited." 

[kmeeusen · Accepted solution]

Hi  @ssweeney818 ‌

You manage what courses display on your Dashboard, by managing your Courses list. Courses that display in your drop-down courses list, also display on your dashboard. When you remove a course from the drop-down, Canvas no longer displays it on the Dashboard.

Learn how at https://community.canvaslms.com/docs/DOC-10570-4212710327  While this How-To is for students, the process works the same for all users.

I hope this helps.

[AllisonRamirez]

Thanks, this solution worked for me.
Alli

[KendallFlores]

this helped me so much

[don_bryn]

Also, as your "All Courses" list gets longer, you can sort that list by a sort-of hack.  Open the "all courses" page and add all your courses to your dashboard by clickingthe star beside each title. Then go back to the dashboard and click the menu on each course and give it a name.  Then go back to "All Courses" and deselect each star.    They will no longer appear in your dashboard but will be sorted in your "all courses" list by the title you gave them.  

I add an asterisk(*) to the beginning of the names for sandbox courses, and "Z_" to the beginning of concluded courses.  So in my list, all sandboxes come first, then current courses, then completed courses.   Of course our college admins have the list set to organize by semester, but some courses don't seem to fall in any particular semester, or perhaps it was a training course so my role is a student (for some reason, those courses never seen to end, they just hang there forever). 

Until there is a better way to organize and file courses, this seems to be the most efficient way to organize your course list.

As a side-note, courses will still appear in other lists by the original name, so it's not consistent across Canvas.   For example if you want to import from a course into another course, you have to scroll around and guess which course you need--usually best to keep the all courses list open so you can cross-reference and find the course you need.

[Chris_Hofer]

Hello there,  @ssweeney818 ...

I have been reviewing older questions here in the Canvas Community, and I came across your question.  I wanted to check in with you because I noticed that we have not heard back from you since you first posted this question on November 14, 2017.  Have you had an opportunity to review the feedback that you've received from both  @kmeeusen  and  @don_bryn ?  Did either of their responses help to answer your question?  Or, are you still looking for some assistance from members of the Community?

(As a side note, the process that Don refers to in his response is about "nicknames", and you can find information about that in one of these Guides: How do I view course cards in the Dashboard as an instructor? and How do I view course cards in the Dashboard as a student?)

If you feel that Kelley's or Don's response has helped to answer your question, please feel free to mark one of their responses as "Correct".  However, if you are still looking for some assistance with this question, please let us know by coming back to this topic to post a message below.  For now, I am going to mark your question as "Assumed Answered" because we've not heard back from you and because there hasn't been any new activity in this topic for well over four months.  I hope that's okay with you, Sarah.  Looking forward to hearing back from you soon.

[JohnOwens]

followed the steps and my dashboard is still cluttered with old classes.  is anyone else having this issue after following the (click) "dashboard", (click) "all courses", (click) "stars" to remove classes procedures? 

[JohnOwens · Accepted solution]

i found this:

"When no courses are favorited, the courses list automatically displays up to 20 courses alphabetically in the drop-down menu. However, once you have selected at least one course as a favorite, only your favorite courses will appear in the Courses list."

and since none of my semester's active classes have been published yet (so i'm unable to star any), this may be why i'm still seeing old classes that i've "un-favorited." 

[HRWALSH12345 · Accepted solution]

@JohnOwens this worked for me!

[ralph_c_hoehn]

My predecessor kindly copied and set up their courses for me to take over. That set-up never gave me the opportunity to "favorite" the courses, which are now stuck in my Dashboard, and I have yet to discover a way even to begin implementing the star-clicking and unclicking instructions. Has anyone seen this before?

[EthanGaines]

I'm having the same issue where I can't remove a course from my dashboard that hasn't been in session since summer 2021. It's quite aggravating since neither support nor the instructor care to offer any really useful information, and all they do is tell me to talk to either one of them. If I ask support, they say ask the instructor, if I ask the instructor, he says talk to support. Kinda lame.

[SusanNiemeyer]

@EthanGaines  That is frustrating. Try contacting the IT folks at your college. They should be able to assist you. 

[nwilson7]

@EthanGaines have you tried the favoriting trick provided in this thread?  How do I customize my Courses list as a student? - Instructure Community

I ask because while the course may have actually ended in the Summer 2021 that does not mean the course concluded in Canvas on that date.  For example, we let every course in Canvas run 1 year later than it actually ends.  So our Summer 2021 courses are still active until around May of this year.  We do this so if there is a grade discrepancy or a student has an incomplete, it is easy for both the student and instructor to go back and access materials.  This does mean that the course would remain on your dashboard for a year longer than students and faculty would think but using the favoriting trick helps clean up the dashboard if people want the course gone from view.

Hope that helps!

-Nick