- current courses within view
- future courses within reach
- past courses retrievable
Do Nothing
If you do nothing your default view is the Dashboard Card View which displays a card for every course you are associated with. Published courses are on the top and unpublished courses are below. Cards are ordered alphabetically within your role in the course (Teacher, TA, Student).
Pick A Favorite
The best way to curate what course cards appear on your Dashboard is to designate Favorites. Navigate to your complete list of courses by selecting Courses from the global navigation, then All Courses. Select the star next to courses you always want to show on the Dashboard. When a course has been selected for the Dashboard it will display with an orange star in the All Courses list.
By using Favorites, you determine what courses are on your Dashboard. When new courses are auto-generated, Canvas automatically ‘favorites’ them so you will see future courses appear on your Dashboard in the Unpublished section at the bottom.
Take it a step further and personalize your dashboard by adding nicknames, colors, and re-ordering cards by drag and drop.
The Secret Logic Behind the All Courses List
As mentioned above, you can navigate to your complete list of courses by selecting Courses from the global navigation, then All Courses. This comprehensive list shows all your Canvas courses putting Past Enrollments at the bottom. You might wonder why previously-taught courses show among current courses instead of under Past Enrollments at the bottom. This is due to how we define term dates in Canvas...
More Than You Wanted To Know About Term Dates
Term dates display throughout Canvas, most prominently at the top of course navigation. For current courses it reads, “2022 Spring (12/27/2021-05/27/2022).” The start and end dates represent two weeks prior to the earliest start of all system campuses and two weeks after the latest end of all system campuses. This range encompasses all campuses plus a little extra before and after. Term dates are important because they define when a student can participate in a published course — unless term dates are superseded by course-specific or section-specific start and end dates.
Instructors Get More Time
Instructors often need to engage with a course after the end of the term to:
- allow a student to resolve an incomplete
- edit grades
- view course analytics
- message students using Conversations
This is why there is a special rule attached to term dates in Canvas that allows teachers an extra five years of interaction in course sites beyond the widely-displayed term end date. If you are a teacher in a Spring 2022 course, it is as if the term ends May 27, 2027! Which is why your list of All Courses treats a previously-taught course as if it is still current.
Concluding a Course
Some instructors conclude courses to remove it from their Dashboard or force it into Past Enrollments on the All Courses list. We do not recommend concluding a course because:
- a favorited course will still appear on your Dashboard after concluding
- you cannot engage with a concluded course
- you cannot ‘unconclude’ a course on your own
Contact Technical Help to reverse a concluded course.
Take Control of Your Dashboard
Update your Favorites every semester to keep your Dashboard organized and relevant.