Scheduling a page to Use as Front Page

[cwoodwar1]

I create custom pages to introduce my students to each Module in my class.  I want to be able to set these module overviews as the Front Page a few days before the Module starts.  The only way I have found to do this is to remember to manually set the page to Use as Front Page on the date I want that to happen. I wish Canvas would allow to schedule the date that you want a page to be used as the front page (replacing the one that is currently there).

Does anyone know a way to do this, or a workaround?  Or does it just have to be done manually?

Thank you!

[NoahBoswell · Accepted solution]

Hi @cwoodwar1 ,

Canvas does not provide you with a way to directly schedule when a front page changes. This would be something that you'd have to do manually, or potentially set-up using custom JavaScript / CSS, which can be quite complex.

This seems like a great idea, so I'd recommend submitting this as an official idea for the product team to check out and possibly implement in the future! 

https://community.canvaslms.com/t5/Canvas-Ideas/idb-p/canvas-ideas 

All the best to you,
Noah

[adamwarecx]

Hi @cwoodwar1 ,

The front page is designed to be the central focus of students for the duration of the course. Students should be able to visit this page and navigate to specific areas of the course as required. Updating this page can lead to a less that desirable UX as students lose familiarity.

With that being said, I also understand where you're coming from. To assist with your course administration desire plus ensure students can naviagte where to go as well as be self sufficient, I'd suggest the following workflow:

• Build the course in modules and ensure that they are locked until the date you require them to be seen. This ensures that students can not access content ahead of time + when they do click on a locked module, it highlights why it is unavailable
• Use Course announcements - Course announcements can be used tailored message (hyperlinked to course areas) and alerts to advise students. In your case, we could schedule an announcement to be released just as the module is open to show case the same information to the student. Announcements are also listed in the course so students can go back to review and communications in date order. The announcements also trigger a timely notification for users plus you can turn on comments, allowing students to provide any feedback based on the announcement.

Additionally, if you copy the course for the next academic period, all information (including the announcements) can be shifted based on dates. This will lead to greater efficiency over time and more time to teach.

[Ron_Bowman]

@cwoodwar1 - I like that ability to have a scheduled changing cover page.  I had a thought and partially tried it out.  If you create a page for each module (what you would use for a front page), you can set the release time for viewing of the page.  Then on your front page you could have a link for each module with a description (i.e Module 1: blah blah blah (available 9/6/2025), etc.  If you have about 10 or 12 modules it would not be too bad of a list.  There are ways you could minimize the foot print as well - I won't go into that here because I don't really know how to explain it (or what you want)

My original thought for the above was if you could somehow embed your page into the existing front page and that page would display only for the times you give it for availability.  Then you would embed all the pages into the front page each with their non-overlapping time of access and it would change for you automatically.  Unfortunately, I do not know how that is possible.  That is I would like to be able to insert the page contents (not a link) only when the page can be accessed.

Just a thought and I understand it is not exactly what you want.

Good luck

Ron