In Canvas, there are a few ways in which you can release specific course content to your students. This is done by configuring Module settings.

This guide walks you through the options of releasing certain materials.

You can set a specific date and time at which the content of an entire Module block becomes available to students.

To do this, follow the steps below.

Step 1:

Navigate to the Module block you wish to ‘lock’ (hide from students). Select the ellipsis drop-down menu of the Module and choose ‘Edit’.

This opens the ‘Edit Module Settings’ menu.

Step 2:

Under ‘Module name *’, select ‘Lock Until’, and choose the date and time at which you’d like the entire Module to be released and viewable to students.

Once configured, select ‘Save’ at the bottom of the page.

Student View

While Modules can be locked until specific dates, the Module title and the titles of any of the items within the Module will still always be visible to the students.

For example, the below Module is currently locked until a future date, however, a student can still see the following:

If you were to select any of the items within that Module while it’s locked, it would show the following:

It is possible to release certain course content to specific students or groups of students. This is done using the ‘Assign to‘ function. You can use this feature for an entire Module or for particular items within a Module.

Part 1 – ‘Assign to’ for an entire Module

Step 1:

Navigate to the Module block you wish to assign to specific students. Select the ellipsis drop-down menu of the Module and choose ‘Edit’.

This opens the ‘Edit Module Settings’ menu.

Step 2:

Select the ‘Assign to‘ tab. You will see that, by default, the Module is visible to everyone enrolled in the course.

Choose ‘Assign to‘, then select the drop-down arrow in the ‘Start typing to search…‘ box that appears.

You will then see a list of the Sections you have created, followed by a list of all the students enrolled in the course.

Select the Section(s) you wish to assign this Module to. You can also type the name of a student to assign the Module to them specifically, as shown below.

When you have chosen all the Sections and/or specific individuals you would like to assign this Module to, choose ‘Save‘ at the bottom of the page.

Once your Module settings are saved, you should see that the Module block appears with a link to ‘View Assign To‘, indicating that certain students have been assigned this Module and it is therefore only available to them.

Student View

If the ‘Assign to‘ Module settings are configured correctly as above, the Module should be available or unavailable to students depending on whether they are in the assigned Section(s) chosen for that particular Module.

Part 2 – ‘Assign to’ for Module items

‘Assign to‘ can also be configured on items within a Module, such as Pages. This is effectively the same as ‘Lock Until’ on the Modules.

To navigate to the ‘Assign to‘ settings of an item, select the item from the Module block.

Then, choose the ‘Edit‘ button.

At the bottom of this page, configure the ‘Assign Access‘ settings as you see fit. It allows you to (1) select who to assign the item to, and also (2) from when and (3) until when you want it to be available. (4) Select the ‘+ Assign to‘ button to assign the item to as many different groups with different item availability as you wish.

It is possible to configure the Module settings so that students need to complete certain material before they can move onto the rest of the course. This is done by setting Module ‘Requirements’ and ‘Prerequisites‘.

To do this, follow the steps below.

Part 1 – Setting Module ‘Requirements’

Step 1:

Navigate to the Module block you wish to mandate completion of items. Select the ellipsis drop-down menu of the Module and choose ‘Edit’.

This opens the ‘Edit Module Settings’ menu.

Step 2:

Under ‘Requirements’, select ‘+ Requirement’.

You then have the option of ‘Complete all’ or ‘Complete one’.

Step 3:

Select the drop-down menu in the ‘Content’ box, then choose your desired item.

Next, select the following drop-down menu to set the action the student must take on this item.

When you’re happy with your set requirements, choose ‘Save’ at the bottom of the page.

Once your Module settings are saved, you should see that the Module block is labelled ‘Complete All Items’ and that the configured requirements are labelled on the respective items.

Part 2 – Setting Module ‘Prerequisites’

Step 1:

Navigate to the Module block you would like to set a prerequisite to. Select the ellipsis drop-down menu of the Module and choose ‘Edit’.

This opens the ‘Edit Module Settings’ menu.

Step 2:

Under ‘Prerequisites’, select ‘+ Prerequisite’.

Then, select the drop-down menu and choose your desired Module, before selecting ‘Save‘.

Once your Module settings are saved, you should see that the Module block is labelled ‘Pre-requisites: [Module title]’.

Student View

Check that you’ve set up your requirements and prerequisites correctly by viewing the Modules area of your Canvas space as a student.

Do this by selecting ‘View as Student‘ on the top right-hand corner of the page, as shown below.

Your Module blocks should look something like this:

1. ‘Complete all items’ Module label

The Module that you set requirements to has a ‘Complete all items‘ label, letting the student know that they must complete all set requirements for this Module in order to move on with the course.

2. Item requires contribution

The ‘Introduce yourself‘ Discussion item has a ‘Contribute‘ label, indicating to the student that they must comment on the post.

3. Item requires completion mark

The ‘Warm-up Video Quiz‘ item has a ‘Mark completed‘ label, telling the student that they must take the video quiz and mark it as complete.

Note that this is faded out, meaning this item is inaccessible until the student completes the previous requirement: contributing to the ‘Introduce yourself‘ Discussion item. This is because the Module settings are configured so that the students must complete all requirements in sequential order.

4. Prerequisite configuration = locked Module

The following Module is labelled ‘Prerequisites: Course Unit Information‘, and therefore is locked and faded out. This tells the student that the entire Module is inaccessible to them until they complete the requirements set for the ‘Course Unit Information‘ Module. Once they complete these requirements, this ‘Week 1 – Classic Mechanics‘ Module will then appear as normal and they will be able to access it.