Joel VannerUpdated May 18, 2026 to clarify the process, student access timelines, and steps to restrict student access to a course
Courses in Canvas are governed by participation dates. These dates define when students are able to submit to assignments, quizzes, and discussions. Additionally, participation dates determine the period during which course announcements can be posted and received by students via e-mail.
When a course is initially created in Canvas, participation is automatically aligned with the dates of the specific academic semester, referred to as the "Term" in Canvas. However, QU Information Technology Services (ITS) manually extends these dates so that participation begins one week prior to the start of the semester—allowing a preview week and announcements delivered by e-mail—and continues until one year after the end of the semester. Students are permitted to participate throughout this entire window, and outside of these dates, they can access the course in a read-only mode.
Despite the extended participation period, Canvas retains the original semester dates. This means that assignment due dates and availability dates cannot be set outside of the official semester dates, even though students may be able to participate (submit work) for a longer period.
Adjusting Participation Dates
If you need to set assignment due dates outside the standard term dates, follow these steps:
- Navigate to the Settings area of your course (1) via the course navigation.
- Under the Course Details tab, change the Participation to be “Course” (2).
- Adjust the dates (3) to extend beyond the period required for assignment due or availability dates.
- Click the blue “Update Course Details” button (4) to save your changes.
After setting assignment dates outside the base term dates, it is important to revert the Participation setting back to Term. This ensures that students can only submit work within the defined year-long participation extension and not beyond it.
Restricting Student Access to a Course
If you do not want students to access the course once it’s over, change Participation to be “Course” (2) and set the end date to the last date the course should be available to students (3). Then, check the “Restrict students from viewing course after course end date” box, and remember to click the blue “Update Course Details” button to save your changes.
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