Add "Lock until date" to content pages

[linda_ohara]

This idea has been developed and deployed to Canvas

---

This would add a level of control from the module to what is contained in them.

Having a lock on module availability is great but sometimes I would like to control when the contents of a module is seen. Availability dates for quizzes in modules is an obvious requirement. Why not have control for visibility of content pages?

Example: I have a "Study notes" module with a content page for every topic I lecture on. Each page contains study materials. I prefer not to let students see ALL materials at once so I have to remember to publish each content page when the time comes. Of course I forget once in a while. If I could set each of those pages to appear when needed, my worries would be over.

Thanks for your consideration.

[don_bryn]

I hope the Canvas development voting system is flexible enough to catch that there are currently two ideas that are almost exactly the same, and each has plenty of votes.  This is obviously a highly-desired functionality in Canvas.

[Stef_retired]

We have them grouped,  @don_bryn ; nevertheless, we appreciate the heads-up! We'll provide the link to the near-identical idea so as to dispel any uncertainty on that score: https://community.canvaslms.com/ideas/7569-let-us-schedule-a-publish-date-time-for-content-pages 

[lziegler]

It looks like this idea has not been discussed here for a while, but I would like to strongly suggest adding the time release feature to pages. 

Currently, my course has multiple labs, and I do not want students to see the lab prior to lab time. Each lab has many files, possibly as many as 10. If I included links to each file separately, I would be able to restrict access to each file separately, which would take a lot of time on my part and use up a lot of space on the screen. Do to the many files, I have found it easier to include all files for a single lab in a page which looks cleaner on the screen and easier to navigate, but I can no longer restrict access, or have it post automatically when lab period starts. I know I can go in and manually change the access when lab starts, but I am in charge of supervising other sections of the class which have different instructors and labs at different times making this a tedious task.

The reason I do not want students to see the lab documents before lab period is because I want students to work cooperatively in groups. If it is posted early, some students start working on it individually which ruins the cooperative learning experience.

[GideonWilliams]

Perhaps you would like to vote for this idea which asks for Modules (and the content therein) to have restrictions based on sections. In this way, you can make certain modules and pages visible to one class but not another class when both are using the same course!

This would be a huge boon for example to Science teachers that might have multiple classes on the same course but at doing different topics?

https://community.canvaslms.com/ideas/5319-hiding-and-viewing-modules-for-individual-sections 

[lziegler]

Thank you Gideon, I will do that!

[ProfessorBeyrer]

Great idea,  @linda_ohara ‌. I just shared this idea with people in a group training.

[vickie_waddell]

You could plan your course out and hide pages until the date students needed to work on them.  Could be great for subs.

[James]

You may be able to accomplish this by creating a non-graded assignment (set the display as to not graded).

It's not the same, but it offers similar functionality. It allows you all the visibility control of a regular assignment, including differentiated assignments to take care of what  @lziegler  was talking about with the different lab sections. If you don't put a due date on it, it doesn't show up on the To Do list, but that might be something that you want them to read at a certain time so it may work in your favor. It doesn't show up in the gradebook since there is no grade.

It will show up on the assignments page and the syllabus page (where depends on whether or not you put a due date). Whether students see this depends on whether you have those navigation tabs enabled.

Another option is use a regular content page and put it in a module that has prerequisites. A page, which normally can be viewed as long as it is published, that is part of a locked module cannot be seen until the prerequisite is met. You can lock the module until a certain date (among other ways to make this work).

Note that if a page is included in multiple modules, it is visible if it is available from any of the places that it is included.

I do not use mastery paths, so I do not know if that is a viable option here.

[ProfessorBeyrer]

Thanks  @James for mentioning the visibility of content pages. It's a good thing to keep in mind for those of us trying the various ways to manage student access to material. For the practice assignment option the appearance on the Syllabus page makes it a tough choice for me, though attaching a "due date" to the consumption of content can help students.

[hasti]

Given that Canvas' file preview feature does not always show the correct and complete contents of a file (see File preview showing incorrect file contents and Why don't PDFs display all their content in the preview anymore?) converting a content page to a file and then setting a release date on that file is (suggested above) is problematic...