Publishing according to a pre-set schedule

[gbauer]

I discovered that when I schedule a file for student accessibility at a later date, that file posting immediately becomes visible to the student. They see the title of the item but when they click it a message pops up telling the student it's not available and gives the date when it will become available. In other words, if I want to front-load a bunch of items and set timers on each one, my students are going to see a long list of irrelevant dead links until they come alive at the scheduled time. At the risk of being dubbed a relentless critic, this is a really, really dumb system! If I don't want my students to see an item until next week, or the week after, or whenever, most likely I also prefer not to let them know it's coming! As I see it, the only way to avoid this is to manually publish each item in real time exactly when I want it available and not a moment sooner. So much for advance planning! Unless this feature is changed I am all but forced to abandon the schedule option.

So my question is obvious: If an item is not yet meant to be accessible, why is it automatically made visible to the student as a link to nowhere? Is there a way to force Canvas to NOT display scheduled items prior to the pre-set publish date? Why doesn't "scheduled but not yet published" produce the exact same student view as "unpublished," namely keeping the item fully hidden from view? 

[lukereifler]

I agree. Weird.

[haymesc]

I completely agree. Be sure to vote for this feature here: https://community.canvaslms.com/ideas/7569-let-us-schedule-a-publish-date-time-for-content-pages 

[canvas77]

I completely agree. I also need this feature and date-locking an item is not a good alternative. Please let us publish at a later specified date/time!

[gbauer]

It is really disappointing that this issue has been left unresolved and ignored by the Canvas development team for over a year now. If someone can provide a common-sense explanation for revealing content to students that is not meant to be accessible to them until a later date, I'd love to hear it. If not, then how about an explanation as to why this item has not yet been addressed? The eLearning folks at my University continue to assure me that Canvas is known for its interest in and responsiveness to user needs and concerns but, unfortunately, I have yet to see it.

[OOO1]

I logged in for the first time just to upvote this. Preplanning is such a fundamental part of good teaching, which Canvas purportedly aims to foster, so that this topic has been in “debate” with Canvas for years is mind-boggling. My institution just moved to Canvas from BB and I must say that I would go back to BB (if I had the option, which I do not) just for this one feature. Imagine the frustration students must feel when they click a page or file whose title looks interesting or useful and they get a message saying the file is locked. This is ridiculous. If I was a student, I’d wonder why my prof was hiding something so valuable from me without realizing that there may be a pedagogical or time management reason for hiding the document. This is not helpful for instructors at all! Please fix this.

[heilaj]

Does this mean I have to manually publish each item I have set to be available on a certain date?