Wiki Page, Canvas Admin Overview: [MODULE 2] Terms and Access Dates

Wiki Page
2014-04-03T08:37:05-06:00

Terms and Access Dates

The basic functions of terms and access dates is to give a default set of start and end dates to any Course assigned to a specific Term.

Terms Defined

Most often, a term's start and end dates are determined by the school administration or registrar's office. Those are often the official start and stop dates for courses in that term. Depending on your institution, you might have a fall semester term, a second trimester term, a late-start term, ongoing term, an 8-week term, etc. Canvas automatically comes with a 'default' term which starts and ends from 'whenever' to 'whenever'.

Courses can only belong to ONE term. So, if you have a Math class that is offered multiple times throughout the year (once in the fall, once in the spring), then you would have TWO course shells -- one assigned to the fall term and one assigned to the spring term. Why? To preserve data. When you import SIS data, it is BY TERM. When you pull reports and view analytics, it is BY TERM.

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Access Dates Defined

Access dates are like terms in that they determine when users can officially access the course. However, it is reasonable to expect teachers, course designers and TAs to need early access to a course site so they can populate the course with content. Therefore, access dates can override term dates to provide early access to courses within a term.

If you don't populate the access dates, then users will be able to access courses based on original term dates.

View Terms, Courses, Sections, Enrollment and Course Access

Who Can Set Term and Access Dates?

Term dates may already be pre-determined by your institution, but as admins, you have the ability to set those term dates and access dates in Canvas. Term dates can be set manually through the user-interface or via a SIS import. Access dates can be also added through the user-interface.

However, a teacher has ultimate authority override their student access dates within their own courses. One example might be a teacher wanting to extend access after the official term end date so they can complete grading or accommodate for incomplete students. Another might be a teacher wanting to open a class a week early to give students a preview of their course or a head-start into the semester.

NOTE: Course may have different access dates, but it does NOT override to which TERM a course belongs.

The following tutorials detail terms and access dates:

What is a Term?

How do I set up term dates effectively?

What should I do at the beginning and end of each term?

What should I encourage instructors to do at the beginning and end of each term?

What do I do if a course extends for more than one term?

What is the relationship between SIS, term dates, course dates, and section dates?

How do I change the start and end dates for my course?