Accessing Canvas Courses (Faculty Guide)

This guide explains when Canvas courses become available each term, how to prepare content using a Sandbox course, and what happens to course access after a term concludes.

Accessing a Course Before the Term Starts

Banner courses will be synced in Canvas and appear on your Instructor Canvas Dashboard on or around the following dates prior to the start of the term: 

  • Spring/Summer: First Monday in November
  • Fall: First Monday in April

Updates to course content should be made within a Sandbox Course. For more information, see: Creating a Sandbox Course in Canvas (Faculty Guide).  

Please note: Canvas Sandbox Courses and Canvas sites used for organizations, departments, groups, etc. are not tied to terms and thus remain available indefinitely.

Moving Your Course Content from Sandbox to Course Shell

Once the new course becomes available, you can move your Sandbox Course content into the new course shell using one of the following methods:

New course sites will be created in an "Unpublished" state by default, and will only be seen by students under “Future Enrollments” until the instructor publishes the course. 

All courses should be published by the Canvas term start date (Friday prior to academic term start) to ensure that students have access to the course materials on day one. Courses that are published prior to the Canvas term start date provide students with read-only access to the course. They will not be able to contribute to assignments or discussions until the Canvas term begins. 

At a minimum, Canvas courses should include a syllabus, contact information for the instructor, and instructions for getting started in the course. For more instructions on publishing a course, see: How to publish a course 

Using Sandbox Courses

Best practice is to develop and edit all of your content in a course shell that does not have enrolled students. This is your Sandbox Course. Doing so:

  • Protects your work if your course is cancelled or the course mode changes.
  • Preserves your course layout, materials, and design elements.
  • Allows for cleaner course copying from term to term.
  • Removes student access to incomplete course content prior to the start of the term.

Upon completion of your course, you can then import your course materials into a new Sandbox so that you have the most up to date content available the next time it is offered.

Need help? Review our KB article: Creating a Sandbox Course in Canvas (Faculty Guide)

Concluding a Course

In general, courses will be concluded automatically when grades are due for the term. Concluding a course does the following:

  • Prevents students from accessing quizzes and submitting course activities after the course ends.
  • Improves Dashboard management by removing completed courses to the Past Enrollments section.
  • Instructors and students still retain access to course materials.

Once a course has concluded, access for Instructors and Students is limited to “Read Only” status. This means a course is no longer available for submitting assignments, posting discussions, uploading files, grading, or any other action-based task within the course. A full list of what instructors and students can and cannot do is outlined below. 

Instructors CAN:

Instructors CANNOT:

  • Edit course content or grades
  • View/download Analytics or item analysis within quizzes
  • Send a message to the class within Canvas
  • Change class access settings
  • Change class navigation

Students CAN:

  • View Grades and course content, including discussions and assignments
  • Send a message to the instructor

Students CANNOT:

  • View Quiz questions and answers
  • Submit discussions, assignments, quizzes, and other course activities

Note: Exceptions can be made; please contact the Thorpe Center for further guidance if you need to extend your course beyond the grading period. For instructions on how to manage an incomplete in Canvas, follow the guidelines outlined in the KB article: [Link for document 164788 is unavailable at this time]

FAQ/Troubleshooting 

Q: When will my course automatically appear on my Canvas Dashboard?

Courses for Spring/Summer are synced on the first Monday in November, and Fall courses are synced on the first Monday in April.

Q: How do I prepare course content before the new term's course shell is created?

Request a Sandbox Course to develop and edit content safely. Once your official course shell opens, you can easily copy or export your materials over from the Sandbox.

Q: When should I publish my course, and what basic content must it include?

Courses should be published by the Friday before the term starts. At a minimum, your course should include a syllabus, instructor contact information, and instructions for getting started.

Q: What happens to instructor and student access after a course concludes?

When grades are due, the course automatically concludes and switches to "Read Only" status—moving to Past Enrollments while preventing new submissions, grading, or editing while preserving access to course materials.
To the top

Keywords:
Canvas course access, how to access Canvas, course availability, Canvas dashboard, course sync dates, term start date, course publishing deadline, sandbox course 
Doc ID:
164770
Owned by:
Stephanie G. in Illinois Wesleyan University
Created:
2026-10-13
Updated:
2026-10-15
Sites:
Illinois Wesleyan University