Publishing a Course in Canvas

Introduction

At St. Petersburg College, Canvas courses must be published by instructors before students can access them. This guide walks you through how to publish a course from the Dashboard or within the course itself, how to confirm that a course is published, and how to unpublish a course if needed.

Important Notes About Publishing:

• All courses are automatically published the Friday before the course start date. Faculty can also opt to publish their courses early. 

• However, students will not be able to fully participate in the course (e.g., submit assignments, post in discussions, or take quizzes) until:

  • The course is published, and

  • The course start date has arrived.

Until the start date, students will have read-only access to the course if it is published. They can view content and navigate throughout the course.

Contents

Publish in Dashboard

Publish in Course

Unpublish Course

Publish in Dashboard

Publish in Course

1. Navigate to your unpublished course.
2. Locate the course status display in the Course Home Page sidebar and the Course Settings sidebar on the top right of the screen.
3. To publish your course, click the Course Status dropdown menu [1]. Then click the Publish button [2].

Note: On smaller screens, the sidebar may display beneath other page content.

View Confirmation

A message will appear at the top of your screen confirming the publishing of your course.

Unpublish Course

1. Navigate to your course, and click the Course Status dropdown menu [1].
2. Then click the Unpublish button [2]. Students who already received course invitations will not be able to access your course.
3. Once your course contains a graded submission, the course status will no longer display in the sidebar and you will no longer be able to unpublish your course.