How to deactivate/remove student access to old course?
Fall was my first semester using Canvas. Now as I'm getting my spring courses set up, I realized that I'm not sure how to "deactivate" my fall courses. That is, I still want to have access to everything in them, but I don't want students to have access to anything.
I thought I would "set end date", but when I try to do that, I get a scary pop-up message warning me that setting an end date will remove students from the roster on that date. Does that mean that their work/grades/assignments will be deleted?? I want to preserve MY access to everything, including individual student grades/work (although I did export my gradebook, but I still want it available in Canvas), while blocking students from accessing anything. Since I have answer keys, etc, posted, I don't want it to be easy to share/circulate those items in the upcoming semester.
Deborah, while it's probable that you can manipulate the end date of the term to accomplish what you're after, I'm wondering why, because term dates and the attendant student access allowed by them are normally set by your school's administrators at the account level for all courses. So before you try to plow past the scary messages (and I agree--that is scary), have you checked to see what your school's policy will be on allowing students access to past materials? At my school, end dates for terms were set at the account level such that students had read-only access after a specific date--and this was automatic; I didn't have to make any changes in course settings. Also, admins can set different end dates at the account level for teachers and students, and I am hopeful this is what they plan to do--so you can continue to be active in the course for a specified period, whereas students will no longer be able to participate. At some point, even your access will go into read-only (as it should), but that will not prevent you from viewing students' assignment submissions and grades; you just won't be able to edit the content any longer.
There is an account-level setting that prevents students from accessing quizzes after the course end date. Again, it's important that you check first with your school's Canvas admins to see how they plan to cover this.
This is the document that explains the options available at the account level: How do I set details for an account? And this one shows how term dates work, again, at the account level: How do term dates, course dates, and section dates work in Canvas?
Despite all of the above, regardless of how the term close dates are ultimately set, and while I still had edit privileges in the course, I would exercise an excess of caution by locking access to any answer keys in the course; depending on how you have provided that information, students might still be able to access them when the course goes into read-only mode.
Thank you Stefanie! I will try to find out what controls are in place at the account level. In the meantime, is there anywhere that *I* can see what those settings are?
I really don't want them to even have read-only access, because as you suggest, this would give them the ability to view answer keys, etc. Although I do change up materials each semester, some things will be re-used, or extremely similar versions. I think for now, I will do as you suggest and go into each course and remove access to sensitive material.
Deborah, you might be able to see the settings for term dates in the course Settings tab. I don't have a currently active course to check; I looked at some concluded courses that are now in a read-only state, and in each case, the term end date is blank (and not editable), because those courses were placed in terms at the account level. My manually created courses are in the "Default term," and for those, I have visible start and end dates that are editable at the course level (i.e., by me), but that is not typical for courses whose term dates are populated by the SIS and/or at the account level. Since this was your first semester using Canvas, I'm wondering if your school is also similarly finding its way through the account level settings; it took my school a while to get its bearings in that regard.
Although it is my first semester using Canvas, we have been in transition while phasing out of ANGEL for a couple of years, so it has been an option for a few semesters.
- edited any Canvas quiz on which I had previously not bothered to set an "end date" - lesson learned! I will always set an end date. Since they still have the links to the quizzes on the home page, this seemed like a necessary step to fully "lock down" this material.
Based on Student View, I believe I have accomplished my goal in terms of limited student access to all "sensitive" material. This seemed like an awfully tedious way to achieve this, so hopefully I will be able to find out a better solution going forward. In ANGEL, it was just a matter of changing the access setting so that students no longer had access after the semester was over.
It sounds like you've done everything you can, Deborah! And yes, putting end dates on quizzes is a great idea; I always do that. I put "until" dates on all of my graded assignments.
That "official courses" language gives me pause; I don't recall ever seeing such a warning, and wonder if it's a custom implementation at your university. I hope that after you've had a chance to investigate this fully with your Canvas admins you'll be able to take a moment to update this thread on your discoveries.
The best thing to do in this case is to go to your course settings and check the box to "Restrict students from viewing course after end date." Doing this will prevent students from viewing or accessing the course in any way after the end date. If you don't have access to this option then you'd want to check with the Canvas admin's at your Institution.
I just saw the strange pop-up message, which does seem like it's institution specific because I've never seen it before. You'd definitely want to talk with your Canvas Admin's about this.