Unlike in Blackboard, there are manual actions required to make a Canvas course accessible to students. This page will walk you through these simple but crucial final steps.
Step 1: Publish the Course Space
For content to be viewable by students, you must publish the course space.
In the top right-hand corner of every Canvas course space is a Course status toggle. Simply select this to reveal the drop-down menu and choose ‘Publish‘. This makes the space accessible to students.
Publishing a course space works independently to the publishing of Modules and the content within the Modules.
IMPORTANT: From August 2025, the number of published courses will be a key metric in measuring the Faculty readiness for Canvas. Lists of unpublished Canvas Course Units will be sent to Heads of Department and Discipline Heads of Education for follow up.
Step 2: Publish the Modules
As well as the overall course space, the content within each space must be published.
To be visible to students, Modules MUST be published and the content inside a Module must also be published.
There may be items within a Module that you wish to remain unpublished (unavailable to students). For example, Tutorial Problem Sheet Answers, which can be made available at a later date, or Information for Graduate Teaching Assistants, which may NEVER be available to students.
There is no way to make parts of a single Page unavailable, so you will need to separate that content into two different Pages to make some parts available and others not.
Semester Start Dates Content Release
As well as making your course and the content within your course published, there is also a release date that enables student access to your course spaces. To be visible to Students a course needs to be Published and after the semester start dates, these dates are listed below.
Assuming Unit course space and content are all published, the Canvas space will only become available 2 weeks prior to the Start of Teaching.
For the Academic Year 2025/26
Canvas Semester 1 and Full Year Course Units Available: Monday 8th September | Canvas Semester 2 Course Units Available: Monday 19th January |
Welcome Week: Starts Monday 22nd September | |
Semester 1 Week 1 (Teaching Starts): Monday 29th September | Semester 2 Week 1 (Teaching Starts): Monday 2nd February |