When Do Students See My Course?
Students will be enrolled in your course automatically, beginning when registration starts. With that in mind, there are two controls that impact when and how students see your course.
Publishing and Access Dates
Published/Unpublished: All courses at Highline are created "Unpublished." This means they are not available for students to view, and none of the messaging systems (e.g. Announcements, Conversations) will send anything out. Students can't see the course materials, and won't receive any messages or announcements you send.
Access dates: When the course is created at Highline, it is automatically set to open at midnight of the first day of classes. There is no set end date.
Both settings matter, together: Students can't see the course materials until both
- The course has been published by you, and
- The Start Date for the course has passed.
How do I set these controls?
| Access | Settings |
|---|---|
| I don't want students to ever see the course (I'm not using Canvas for this course). | Leave the course unpublished, ignore start/end dates. |
| I want students to see the course on the first day of the quarter. | Publish the course before the first day of the quarter, and ignore start/end dates. |
| I'm teaching a late start course, and don't want students to see the course until the first day. | Publish the course before the start date; change both the start and end dates for the course, and click the "Users can only participate in the course between these dates" setting. |
| I want students to see the course before the first day of the quarter. | Publish the course before the start date; change both the start and end dates for the course, and click the "Users can only participate in the course between these dates" setting. |
See the following Canvas Guides for the steps to modify these settings:
- What are the different states of a Canvas course? Links to an external site. Publishing and Unpublishing
- How do I change the start and end dates for my course? Links to an external site. Note that you must create both Start and End dates, and check the box labeled "Users can only participate in the course between these dates" on the Settings page.
What if my students can't see the course?
The two controls above are the first place to look:
- Is the course published?
- Is the current date between the start and end date?
If only a few students can't see the course, check the People tab. It's possible there was a change in their official enrollments status in your class, and it has not yet processed through Canvas. See the information about enrollments for details.
If you checked all of the above, and students still can't see the course, contact the Help Desk at helpdesk@highline.edu.