Courses default to Term participation, meaning students can access the course as soon as it’s published and will have “read-only” access after the term ends, as long as they maintain UWEC credentials. This guide explains how to adjust course availability dates in Canvas and clarifies how publish status affects student access. Note that publish status overrides any date settings; an unpublished course remains invisible to students regardless of the dates.
View/Adjust Dates
Remove access completely after the semester ends.
- Go to the Settings tab of your course.
- Change the Participation drop-down from Term to Course.
- Enter a Start and End Date and select both checkboxes.
IMPORTANT: Leaving the end date blank = students keep access indefinitely (with UWEC credentials). - Scroll to the bottom and select Update Course Details.
Incompletes
Canvas offers three options:
Continue in Original Class
- Change course dates for all students.
- Extend access for one student: Canvas - Extend Student Access Tool (UW-System guide)
IMPORTANT: This tool is developed by the UW System, not by Canvas. After the term or course ends, the student may no longer see the course on their dashboard. They can still access the Past Enrollments section of Courses > All Courses.
Enroll in Future Semester Class
If you wish to have the student participate in your class next semester, send an email to Tiffany Lewis (lewistg@uwec.edu). Include the following:
- Name of student
- Original course number and semester (e.g., BCOM 207-005 from Spring 2025)
- New course number