Once the semester is complete, there is nothing you must do to complete your course. By default, courses are defined by terms which end two weeks after the official end of the semester. Once that time passes, your course is moved into a read-only state and moved off your students’ Dashboards. Students will no longer be able to participate in activities in the course such as submitting assignments or replying to discussions. But you may like to perform some tasks for record-keeping and student access:
Step 1: Review and Export Gradebook
It is important to verify grades if Canvas is the gradebook of record and then export your gradebook for your records:
- Verify that the Canvas Gradebook matches the grading policy set up in your syllabus, especially if using weighted assignment groups.
- If using a grading scheme, make sure it matches the grading policy set up in your syllabus.
- Check that all assignments are graded for all students. Missing grade entries should be recorded as zero, otherwise they will not be counted in final grades.
- Check that all assignment grades are posted. If a visibility icon (
) is displayed by the total grade, hover over it to confirm it does not reference unposted grades. - Export the gradebook from Grades to download a CSV file of your final grades.
- If you store your gradebook file locally, please consult UD policies for encrypting devices and data.
Step 2: Unpublish Course Content
If you are concerned about students viewing certain materials such as homework solutions or answer keys after the semester ends, you can unpublish items such as individual files or modules or use bulk module unpublishing tool available at the top of the Modules tool page. Also if you used Quizzes, you may wish to turn off viewing of quiz responses (Classic Quizzes) or restrict student viewing (New Quizzes) so that students cannot see their submissions if you re-use material each semester.
Step 3: Adjust Course Settings
Adjust your course Settings if you need to change the visibility of your course after the semester ends.
- If you wish to hide content from students that cannot be unpublished, you may choose to remove the tool from the course navigation to prevent easy access.
- If you need to extend participation in your course (for both students and teachers) beyond the two weeks after the end of the semester, change the Participation setting to Course and adjust the end date to a new date. For example, a Spring 2023 course term ended on June 8. If you need to allow students with incomplete work to submit assignments, set the course date to when the work will be complete. The adjustment applies to all students, so you may need to differentiate assignment rules for students to avoid confusion (please see the Canvas@UD FAQ, How do I customize due dates for an assignment?)
Note: You can also change the date to earlier than the term end date if you wish student participation to end before the default term is complete.
- To prevent your students from entering your course after the semester ends, check the “Restrict students from viewing course after term end date” option. You can set this option with the default term or a custom course end date that is either earlier or later than the default term.
If you do select this option, you may wish to inform your students. The course is removed from both the Dashboard and the Courses list, so students have no access and may contact you about enrollment. For more information about student course access, please refer to the blog post How to Manage Student Course Access.
To maintain historical integrity of your course content, please do not edit a catalog course for future course development. If your new course shell is not yet available, please request a staging site using the miscellaneous site request form. You can import content developed in your staging site when you official course shell becomes available.
| Date | Change Log |
| 4/9/2024 | link updates; NQ additions |
| 4/23/2021 | initial post |
