Canvas - Working with Concluded Course Sites (for Instructors)


Introduction

Canvas is Virginia Tech's learning management system (LMS). Instructors use Canvas to manage teaching materials like assignments, quizzes, feedback, and student grades. 

  • Official courses are automatically created in instructors' Canvas accounts.
  • Enrolled students are automatically added.
  • Instructors can reuse teaching materials by importing them to a new course site.
  • Canvas provides 24-7 support by phone (833-639-7621) and chat (click Help on any Canvas screen).

The Canvas Instructor Guide and the Canvas Student Guide have full instructions on using Canvas. These instructions are specific to Virginia Tech. To see other Canvas topics, please see:

Contents

Instructions

Background on Concluded Course Sites

Course sites go into a completed state automatically based on course end dates) or manually by going to a course's Settings > Conclude this Course. The site is accessible and you can import material to a new site, but you can't change the concluded site's teaching materials. This includes making changes to settings, including the navigation menu.

  • Course sites automatically conclude after the end of the term, unless you override the term dates in course Settings.
    • Prevent a site from concluding by extending the end date in course Settings to a date in the future.
  • Concluding a course will lock it for editing; you can't change teaching materials or add/remove People. 
  • Students can still see concluded course site materials.
    • You can prevent students from seeing teaching materials by checking a box to restrict students from viewing course after course end date in course Settings. 
  • You can access concluded courses by going to Courses -> All Courses. They're listed under Past Enrollments.

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Concluding Course Sites

There are two ways to conclude a course before the end of the term:

  • Go to Settings and click Conclude this Course.
  • Go to Settings and change the End date to a date in the past. Click Update Course Details.

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Importing Materials from Concluded Course Sites

For more detail and screenshots, see How do I copy content from another Canvas course using the Course Import tool?

  1. Go to the new course site's Settings and click Import Course Content in the bar on the right side.
  2. Under Select Content Type, click Copy a Canvas Course.
  3. Under Select a course, you can find your course in the drop down menu, or under Search for a course, type in keywords to find your course.
    • If you don't see your course, make sure the checkbox for Include completed courses is checked to find your concluded course sites.
  4. Choose if you want to import All content or Select specific content.
  5. Check the box for Adjust events and due dates and set new dates if needed.
    • NOTE: If you have any missing or late policies set on your previous course, you need to go turn those off before the import, otherwise the assignment grades will be defaulted to "0" upon import. If this happens, you'll need to follow this workaround to get rid of the 0s before you start grading in your new site.
  6. Click + Add to Import Queue.
  7. If you chose to Select specific content, you'll see a Waiting for selection status for your import request and have the ability to click Select content to choose specific content to copy over.

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Unconcluding Course Sites

  • You need to unconclude a course site to make changes to the site, such as adding people or editing teaching materials.
  • If the course end date was less than a year ago, instructors can unconclude official course sites by changing the end date to a future date.
  • Before you unconclude to add new people to a course, please consider FERPA risks. For more detail, see Adding People to Concluded Course Sites.
  1. Go to your course site and click Settings to see the Course Details. You'll see that the Participation is set to Term and the start and end dates are grayed out.
  2. Next to Participation, click on Term to access a drop down menu.
    Image of the above instructions
  3. In the drop down menu, click on Course. Doing so de-couples the course term dates from the default semester dates.
    Image of the above instructions
  4. Under Term, next to Start and End, enter start and end dates. You need to enter both dates! 
    Image of the above instructions
  5. Choose whether to restrict students from viewing the course before the start date and after the end date. 
  6. Scroll down and click Update Course Details. Changes are not automatically saved. 

NOTE: If the Participation field is grayed out or set to Course already instead of Term and the dates are still inaccessible, a VT Canvas admin will have to unconclude the course for you. Request this through 4Help by clicking Get Help on the 4Help portal. Include your Canvas site's URL in your request.

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Adding People to Concluded Course Sites

If the +People and +Guest buttons are greyed out or unavailable, it’s usually because the course is in a concluded state or tied to a term that has ended. When this happens, Canvas restricts adding users in order to protect the integrity of student records.

To provide access in a FERPA-compliant way, we recommend the following:

If the user needs to view or reuse course materials (but not access past student activity):
  1. Create a new Canvas course shell from your Canvas Dashboard by clicking the Start a New Course button. See: How do I create a new course from the Dashboard as an instructor?
  2. Import content from the original course into this new shell. See: How do I copy content from another Canvas course using the Course Import tool?
  3. Then add the user to the new shell using +People, assigning them an appropriate role (e.g., Designer or Teacher).
If the user is helping with instructional design, course prep, or curriculum review:
If the user needs access to the original course for accreditation or data review purposes:

If you are listed as the Instructor of Record, we can:

  1. Temporarily change the course participation setting to “Course” and extend the end date.
  2. Add the user with an appropriate role.
  3. Then return the course to its original term-based setting.

If you're not the Instructor of Record, we’ll need written approval from the department head before making any changes.

If the user needs access to the original course to complete coursework for an incomplete grade:

If you are listed as the Instructor of Record, you can:

  1. Temporarily change the course participation setting to Course and extend the end date to the date by which the student needs to complete coursework.
  2. Assign assignments/quizzes to the individual student only, with new access and due dates to allow the student to submit coursework.
  3. Then return the course to its original term-based setting after the student completes all work.

If you're not the Instructor of Record, we’ll need written approval from the department head before making any changes.

For assistance with unconcluding courses, please contact TLOS by submitting an incident on 4Help.

Please note: Granting access to a concluded course that contains student data is only permitted under FERPA when there is a clear educational or institutional need and proper authorization. Adding users who are not officially affiliated with the course must be carefully reviewed to avoid any unauthorized exposure of student information.

 

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Deleting Course Sites

You need department head permission to delete a course site, because Virginia Tech Intellectual Property Policy 13000 grants the university perpetual rights to use materials for teaching and research. You cannot unpublish official course sites after students have submitted graded assignments.

Instead, you can:

  • Conclude the site to move it under Past Enrollments on the All Courses page.
  • Change the term dates to restrict access and visibility to the site. If the present date is not between the start and end dates, students will not be able to access the site. See: Term dates.

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Getting Help

For instructions on resolving common issues with Canvas, see:

Instructure, the creators of Canvas, provide 24-7 Canvas support, including live chat and a support hotline.

To get Canvas help, click Help on any Canvas screen and choose from help options:

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