End-of-term Canvas assessment management for OHIO faculty

When an academic term ends, it’s essential to understand how Canvas courses transition and what steps Ohio University faculty should take.

This guide explains what happens to a Canvas course after the term concludes, why it’s important to manage course access and how to make assessments unavailable to students.

Canvas course access post-term

• Read-only access for students:
  • After the term ends, students will retain read-only access to the course. This means they can view course materials, their grades and submissions, but they cannot interact with or change anything.
• Instructor access:
  • Instructors retain full access to the course, allowing them to copy content for future terms, adjust settings and manage records.

Why restrict assessments?

Ensuring assessments are unavailable after the term ends is critical for maintaining the integrity of a course. Here’s why:

• Prevent unauthorized sharing: Restricting access minimizes the risk of assessment questions being shared with future students.
• Ensure fairness: Protect the academic integrity of assessments for reuse in future terms.

How to make assessments unavailable

Follow these steps to make quizzes, tests and other assessments inaccessible to students:

Log in to Canvas

• Navigate to the course you wish to manage.

Access the assignments page

• Go to Assignments in the course navigation menu.

Bulk edit assessment availability dates

1. Open the assignment date editor
   1. Click the Options icon (three dots next to the +Assignment button).
   2. Select the Edit Assignment Dates option.
2. All graded items in a course, including assignments, discussions and quizzes, are listed in the Title column and current availability dates (if any) display in the Available From and Available Until columns.
3. Click each entry box in the Available Until column and choose a date to make each assignment unavailable.  
4. Ensure you click Save to apply all updates.
5. Review this Canvas instructor guide for more detailed information and images. 

Edit individual assessment availability

1. Click on the assignment name.
2. Select Edit.
3. Scroll to Assign to settings.
4. Adjust the Available Until date to a past date (e.g., the day after the term ends).
5. Ensure you click Save to apply updates.

Additional tips

• Ensure any other content in the course that you do not want students to engage with is unpublished. Note: you cannot unpublish assignments, quizzes or discussions that have student submissions. 
• Review the Assignments section to confirm submission windows are closed.

Communicating with students 

Before restricting access, notify students:

• In the syllabus or early in the term:
  • Suggest students download materials they may want to keep for future reference.
  • Clarify that assessments will no longer be available after the term.
• At the end of the term send an announcement to students informing them that the assessments, as well as specified content, will no longer be available on the date you have selected.

Learn more about

• Canvas Experts: Managing Course Visibility in Canvas
• Controlling Student Visibility in your Canvas Course
• Viewing Inactive Student Information in Canvas
• Want to connect with the Office of Instructional Design? Send an email to oid@ohio.edu and a representative will get back to you shortly.