Technology

Participation Setting in Canvas

Canvas courses have a Participation setting in course settings. This setting has two options:

  • Term: This is the default Participation setting for Canvas courses at Illinois State. When set to Term, course visibility will be governed by the default Start and End dates/times for each academic term as set by Canvas administrators.
    • Default Start date/time: Approximately 30 days prior to the start of classes for the term.
    • Default End date/time: Approximately 10 days after the end of classes for the academic term.

  • Course: Changing the Participation setting of your Canvas course to Course will override the default Start and End date/time in favor of what is configured by the instructor, and may impact the timing of visibility and access of the course to yourself and others.

Warning: If students are reporting that they can see one or more of their past courses in Canvas, the instructor has likely used the Course setting. If the instructor wishes to remove access to the course from past students, they will need to adjust the Participation setting for their course.

  • "Term" Participation Setting

Canvas courses at Illinois State University are defaulted into a Term-based Participation setting (Figure 1). Courses managed by this setting will observe the following behaviors related to visibility:

  • Student Viewing/Accessibility:
    • Students will be able to view/access the course ~30 days prior to the beginning of a new academic term. 
      • The instructor must also have published the course before students will be able to view/access the course.
    • Students will lose access to the course ~10 days after the end of the academic term for which the course was offered.
  • Instructor Viewing/Editing Ability:
    • Instructors will retain full access to view and edit their course for 1 year after the end of the academic term for which the course was offered. Once the 1-year period has elapsed, instructors will continue to be able to access the course and may be able to copy/download some content contained in the course, but will be unable to edit the course any longer.
      • Note: It is strongly recommended instructors copy/save any desired content from the Canvas course within 1-year of the completion of the academic term for which the course was offered.

Figure 1:

  • "Course" Participation Setting

Instructors have the ability to change the Participation setting of their Canvas course from the default "Term" to "Course" (Figure 2). Courses managed by this setting will observe the following behaviors related to visibility:

  • Student Viewing/Accessibility:
    • Students will be able to view/access the course ~30 days prior to the beginning of a new academic term, or later if the Start date/time is set to a later date than the default Start date/time. 
      • The instructor must also have published the course before students will be able to view/access the course.
    • Students will lose access to the course as described below:
      • If the instructor has entered an End date/time for the course, students will lose access to the course once that End Date/Time has expired.
      • If the instructor has left the End date/time empty, students will continue to have access to the course indefinitely as long as they have an active student account in Canvas at ISU.
  • Instructor Viewing/Editing Ability:
    • If the instructor has entered an End date/time for the course, the instructor will be unable to edit the course any longer once the End date/time has expired. They will continue to be able to access the course and may be able to copy/download some content contained in the course.
      • Note: It is strongly recommended instructors using this setting copy/save any desired content from the Canvas course prior to the End date/time they have set for the course.
    • In the instructor has left the End date/time field blank, they will retain viewing/edting access to the course indefinitely.

Figure 1:


How to Get Help

Technical assistance is available through the Illinois State University Technology Support Center at: