Observer/Parent Notifications

[elainew]

Parents are receiving notifications from courses that their students were in last year.  The term dates were set to end at the end of the school year.  How can I as an admin turn off these notifications?  Do I need to conclude the courses?  What happens to courses when they are concluded?  Thanks!

[JEtley · Accepted solution]

Hi  @elainew!.  

When a term, course, and/or section date has passed, the courses and/or sections are said to be concluded. This puts them  in a read-only (archived) state. Read-only means that the course is not available for submitting assignments, posting discussions, uploading files, grading, or any other action-based task within a course.

Additionally, notifications and messages are no longer active in concluded courses.

Individual users can also modify their personal notification settings by following "How do I manage my Canvas notifications?" guide.

Here is a wonderful resource for admins for you to consider: End of Year Guide for Canvas LMS

Have a great school year!

[JEtley · Accepted solution]

Hi  @elainew!.  

When a term, course, and/or section date has passed, the courses and/or sections are said to be concluded. This puts them  in a read-only (archived) state. Read-only means that the course is not available for submitting assignments, posting discussions, uploading files, grading, or any other action-based task within a course.

Additionally, notifications and messages are no longer active in concluded courses.

Individual users can also modify their personal notification settings by following "How do I manage my Canvas notifications?" guide.

Here is a wonderful resource for admins for you to consider: End of Year Guide for Canvas LMS

Have a great school year!

[elainew]

That doesn't explain why parent's are getting notifications from previous years' courses.  Where should I look to stop this from happening?

[JEtley · Accepted solution]

Potential Causes

• Course vs. Term Dates: Courses can have different start and end dates than the overall term dates set at the account level. A course that is past its term date is still visible UNTIL IT IS CONCLUDED to users, but cannot be modified. If an instructor wants to restrict participation after the course end date, they must also select the option "Users can only participate in the course between these dates" in the course settings.

• Notification Settings: A user's notification preferences determine how and when they receive alerts. It's possible that the parent has their notification settings configured to continue receiving updates even after the course has concluded. They can also set notification preferences for individual courses which override their account-level settings.

• Email Suppression List: If a notification email bounced at any point, the parent's email address might have been added to a suppression list, preventing them from receiving future emails from Canvas.

Next Steps

1. Check Course Settings: The first step is to verify the course dates and settings. The instructor or an admin should go to the course's "Settings" and check the "Participation" setting. If it is set to "Term," the course dates are governed by the term dates. To prevent participation and notifications after a certain date, the "Users can only participate in the course between these dates" box should be checked.

2. Review Parent's Notification Preferences: The parent should check their notification preferences to ensure they are not set to receive notifications for concluded courses. They can manage these settings in their Canvas account by going to "Account" and then "Notifications." They can also check for specific course notification settings by navigating to the course and clicking on "View Course Notifications".

3. Contact Support: If the issue persists after checking these settings, please have the parent or an admin submit a support ticket to our Canvas Support team. It would be helpful to include the name of the course and the student's name in the ticket. Our support team can investigate further, including whether the email address is on a suppression list, and can assist with resolving the issue.

[elainew]

Thank you all for your help.  I'm going to forward the Parent Notification settings to parent's who contact us.  Then I will double check the course settings and terms.  Thanks again!