PennKeys do not expire, so students can still log into Canvas after graduation with your PennKey username and password. Access to specific course sites will vary.
After students graduate, you may use alumni computing services, many of which will continue to use your PennKey. Students should be sure to sign up for the PennKey Recovery Service to easily reset your PennKey password after graduation.
Please note: these policies do not apply to Penn Carey Law, which uses a separate Canvas environment.
Access to Course Sites
Although graduated students retain access to Canvas indefinitely via your PennKey, access to a particular Canvas site depends on two factors:
- Canvas sites are retained in Penn’s Canvas environment for five years from the term during which the course was offered. After five years have passed since a Canvas site was active, that site may no longer be available.
- Faculty may choose to enable a setting that completely prevents students from accessing a Canvas site after a term ends. Students can no longer access a Canvas site to which this setting is applied. If you need access to content in a Canvas site that is no longer available, please email your instructor to request this content.
If a Canvas site is not listed on your Canvas Dashboard, it may still appear in the course list of Past Enrollments.
- Log into Canvas and click Courses > All Courses, then scroll down the page to Past Enrollments and click on the relevant Canvas site link.
- If a site does not appear on either your Canvas Dashboard or under Past Enrollments, then the site is unavailable, and you will need to email your instructor to request any content you need to access.
Other Course Materials
Some content accessible within a Canvas course site may have different expiration dates depending on the specific tool, instructor policy, and licensing agreements:
- Course Materials @ Penn Libraries expire at the end of the term.
- Class Recordings may have school- or class-specific expiration dates.
- Synchronous class session videos may not be available after a class ends.
- Publisher-provided content will expire according to the policies of the publisher’s licensing agreements.
- Study.Net Materials typically expire 90 days after a class ends.
Additional Resources
Getting Help
Please contact your Local Support Provider or submit a request to canvas@pobox.upenn.edu.