Change Term and Course Dates in Canvas
Every academic Canvas course is created with default Term dates. If the Term dates do not meet your course needs, instructors can change them. This guide shows you how to check the dates and adjust if needed.
Term dates in Canvas align with the Academic Calendar start of undergraduate classes and end 10 days after the last day of classes. Adjusting dates is a proactive permission - Instructor ability stops after the end date passes.
Need more information? Term dates are one aspect of managing access to your Canvas course.
Important! Empty Dates Cause Issues
Do not to leave Canvas Participation date boxes blank. Blank dates cause two known issues:
- Students are allowed to keep submitting work in the course, including submitting assignments and taking quizzes indefinitely.
- The course remains in current enrollments, rather than moving to yours and students' past enrollments list.
Step 1: Confirm Term Dates
Default Term dates are displayed every Canvas course. Open your Canvas course and navigate to Settings, then look for the Participation Start and End dates to decide if they work for you:
- Do you want students to begin working before the start date?
- Do you want students to stop working earlier or later than the end date?
- Will you have grading complete before the end date?
Step 2: Change to Course Dates
First, change the Participation option from Term to Course. Making this change is required for Canvas to accept new date entries.
Second, enter your new start and end dates and click Update Course Details to save your changes.
Note, you can also choose to restrict students from viewing the course before or after it begins and ends. Consider students prefer looking back at courses during their academic journey when deciding to restrict viewing.
