Student that withdrew from course requesting access to archive course material after course concluded.

[RobertoCarrasco]

I'm the student that withdrew late from a course and wasn't aware they would lose access to the course material through canvas.

Is it technically possible for an administrator to grant a student read-only access to a course that has already been archived?

If access can be reinstated, would the student's submissions and grades from before my withdrawal still be available?

Would appreciate any help on this matter. Thank you.

[James · Accepted solution]

@RobertoCarrasco 

You will need to reach out to your institution for a definitive answer. This is a global community of Canvas users without access to your particular institution and policies and the best we can do is say "it depends."

It depends on what is meant by archiving. Some schools delete their courses after a certain amount of time; others keep them around indefinitely. If the courses are deleted or reset, you probably won't get anything back. If they are still in Canvas but you don't have access, the odds go up.

It may also depend on the policy of the school. Some schools don't want students to have access to the course after they drop. This is like a traditional face-to-face course where you only have access while you're there. Others place you in what you call "read only", the Canvas name is "completed", status where you can see the course but not make any submissions. Our institution completely removes students who drop before the class starts, but marks them as completed if they drop after the class starts. I made that decision when we started to facilitate gathering data, including grade appeals, and because students may want access to the work they've done. Other schools do things differently. Some may leave the courses but delete the student enrollments once the course is over and has been archived. That said, instructors can set their course so that students cannot access it after their course is over. I've done that to keep repeat students from accessing quizzes from prior terms. I would not want an administrator making the decision to give a student access to my course without my sign-off on it.

If the course is still in Canvas, then the submissions and grades would still exist. Even if your enrollment is deleted (you're completely gone, not just read-only), re-adding you to the class restores that information. If the course has been wiped from Canvas, then don't count on getting anything back.

I know I'm saying "it depends" a lot, but it really does. You need to work with your institution as they are the ones that would know their policies.

You may be able to access your file submissions from the course by going to Account > Files > My Files > Submissions.