A teacher in Canvas can temporarily or permanently restrict students from accessing a course. 


Things to note: 

  • If a Canvas course does not contain graded submissions, a teacher can click the "unpublish" button located on the course home page. 
    • Once a course is unpublished, students will not be able to access the course.
  • If the "unpublish" button does not appear, the course may contain graded submissions. See instructions below on how to proceed.
  • Cases when teachers might want to prevent students from accessing and viewing course material:
    • During exams 
    • End of Semester

How does a restricted course appear in Canvas?
  • Teachers
: The course will remain on the teachers dashboard.
  • Students
: The course is removed from the student's dashboard and placed under the "Past Enrollments" list on the student's "All Courses" page. 

Instructions for temporarily or permanently restricting student access to a Canvas course 


  1. On the course menu, click Settings


  2. Click on the Course Details page


  3. Enter a course End Date and Time and select “Users can only participate in the course between these dates“


  4. And also select “Restrict student from viewing the course after end date”


  5. Scroll down to the bottom on the page, and click "Update course details"