[Dashboard] Allow past enrollments to be added to course menu

I'm a designer.  I have a ton of courses in my "all courses" list, and would like to periodically switch which ones I'm able to quickly access from my customized list, even if the course is one from the past.  Canvas says "To customize the list of courses, click on the "All Courses" link and star the courses to display."  Of course they fail to tell you that this doesn't apply to past enrollments.  Bummer.

 

My idea: Make it so when I click on the star next to a course in the Past Enrollments section, I don't get a message that says "This course cannot be added to the courses menu at this time."  

35 Comments
beerline_n
Community Participant

I never thought about that! It seems an unnecessary step to take, but thanks for the workaround!

Nora

Nora Beerline

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Rhodes State College

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arlesha_roberts
Community Novice

It's like having the books you need right in front of You rather then

having them put away

dholton
Community Participant

Future courses are locked, too: Why are Future Courses locked? 

Which means that an instructor working on building a course that's about to be offered can't star it and quickly access it.

So I'd recommend this feature request be modified to allow any and all courses (past or future or present) to be starred and added to the dashboard.

kmeeusen
Community Champion

Hi  @dholton ‌

The locking of future courses is controlled by your Canvas Admin(s). We typically open our future courses for faculty 30+ days before the start of the term so that faculty can work on them, and the two schools I teach at do the same.  Your admins can learn more about this in the Admin Guide at Terms.

Time to petition your admins to fix this oversight.

Kelley

schenk
Community Explorer

Just wanted to bump this one up, since we just came across this limitation. Why is it even there? It takes the choice of customization away from the user without good reason.

We would very much like to have this changed as well, so the user can make the decision himself. We often have courses that have run to their end date (which is the date of the last class) and then students still have to access them for turning in their assignments. 

kendall_hunter
Community Member

I teach the same topics year after year. It is very convenient to have a class from one, two, or even three years prior in my favorites, as it can remind me of my lecture pace, posted notes, similar homework, etc. This limitation is both frustrating and confusing. Please remove it.

luke_owens
Community Participant

Just wanted to check in on this feature request. Now that we're between terms again, I have faculty trying to favorite a past course so they can easily access it in their dashboard. Canvas is still saying "cannot be added...at this time," and it's still frustrating. Thank you for considering this request!

kendall_hunter
Community Member

Here we are, more than a year and two semesters after many of us have noted that this is a pointless removal of a user's ability to self-determine which courses are their favorites. DO SOMETHING CANVAS. Why are you deciding for us?

taylorbs
Community Novice

Preach it, my brother! It is such an unnecessary time-suck to have to reach back to get what I need.

edwardn1
Community Participant

Totally agree for all the same reasons others cited (and I didn't realize there already was a request for this since I just posted a similar request.  Looks like it has been requested several different ways.

This is something that other LMS's accommodate.  I realize that it would mess with code.  The past courses don't have to appear with the "cards" when you open Canvas - cute as they are, I just want them to appear in the Courses menu because I don't go back to to home screen when I want to switch courses.