- Course End Date/Concluding a Course
The end date for your course is automatically set according to the term in which your class is active. After the course concludes, students will have read-only access to courses by default. This means that students will not be able to submit any assignments or view quiz questions or results, but will be able to see all other course content, discussions, and assignment submissions. If you do not wish for students to have this type of access to your course after the end of the semester you may restrict students from viewing your course after the course end date.
For more information about when your course officially concludes, see: Terms in Canvas
For more information about restricting student access after the end of term, see: How do I restrict student access before or after the course dates?
2. Place Your Course in “Penn Term” for Student Incompletes
When a course must stay open beyond the default end-of-term date, upon an instructor’s request a course may be placed in the “Penn Term” which doesn’t have date restrictions. For example, if an instructor has a student or students who are taking an “incomplete” grade, the instructor should write to Courseware Support (canvas@pobox.upenn.edu) and request to have a site temporarily reactivated, by being placed in “Penn Term” in Canvas.
Important: Sites should not remain in “Penn Term” indefinitely due to the risks of leaving it active (e.g. a student who shouldn’t be able to submit an assignment does).
3. Backup/Download Course Content
It is a good practice to backup or copy your course materials at the end of the semester by exporting your Canvas course. You may share your exported course with another Canvas user, upload to another institution’s account at a later date, or simply retain as a backup on your local computer. For more information about how to do this, see: how do I export a Canvas course?
Note: Exports are packaged as IMSCC ZIP files, which can only be opened by programs that support Common Cartridge Files. You may also change the extension from .imscc to .zip and treat it like any other ZIP file.
4. Organize Your Dashboard and Courses
The end of term is a good time to reorganize your Canvas Dashboard. You may unfavorite (“unstar”) any published courses that you don’t want on your Dashboard. A concluded site that has not been favorited will appear in the “Past Enrollments” list (Courses> All Courses). Note that concluded sites cannot be favorited (“starred”), which means they can’t be added as course cards to the User Dashboard.
If you have any questions, please contact Courseware Support at canvas@pobox.upenn.edu
Last Updated: 20 Oct 2021