Body
Description
The Canvas course retention standard specifies how long courses will be retained in Canvas, as well as when the deletion activity occurs so that we can keep Canvas current and manage course data according to industry best practices, such as practices of IUC (Inter-University Council of Ohio) peer institutions. The standard is subject to review and revision as our institutional needs change. This page includes standards, definitions, and the schedule for course changes.
Environment
Canvas
Solution
Course Retention Standard – Academic Courses
- This standard applies to all for-credit courses taught in Canvas. The impacted courses will have Course IDs that look like this example, 10000_2245_IART_1170_300. These courses are generated automatically by course information from the student information system.
- By default, for-credit courses will remain fully available to instructors for 6 months after the end of the term in which the course was taught. At this time, the course will become Concluded.
- If an instructor chooses to control their course participation by course dates, instead of term dates, the course will conclude on the course end date. The instructor will not have the additional 6 months of full access that is afforded to the courses controlled by term dates.
- Concluded courses are still visible to instructors but can no longer be edited. Instructors can still copy content from these courses to current courses and can still view select content within the course.
- Concluded courses are still visible to students and can be accessed under Previous Enrollments. Students will be able to see content that the instructor had listed as “Visible to Students” at the time that the course concluded.
- Two years after the end date of the term in which a course was taught, academic courses will be archived.
- Archived courses are no longer accessible to instructors or students.
- Instructors will be able to request access to archived courses by submitting a request to the OIT Canvas Support Team.
- Academic courses are eligible for deletion 7 years after the end of the term in which they were taught.
- Instructors are also encouraged to create and keep a local export (copy) of their own courses. Exports of courses will include content created by the instructor but automatically exclude any student work or submissions.
Course Retention Standard – Manually Created Courses
- This standard applies to all manually created courses in Canvas, including but not limited to:
- Continuing Education courses, i.e. CE_SUBJECT_DATE
- Development courses, i.e. DEV_SUBJECT_DATE
- Orientation courses, i.e. ORIENTATION_GROUP_DATE
- Placement Tests, i.e. PLACEMENT_PURPOSE_DATE
- Prime courses, i.e. PRIME_SUBJECT_DATE
- Resource courses, i.e. RESOURCE_SUBJECT_DATE
- Test courses, i.e. TEST_OHIOID_DATE
- Training courses, i.e. TRAINING_SUBJECT_DATE
- Manually created courses that have no activity for a period of two years will be eligible for deletion.
- OIT will notify the instructor of the course at least 30 days in advance of the planned deletion to provide an opportunity to retain their content outside of Canvas.
Definitions
The following definitions will be used for the description of the course retention standard:
- Academic Course: All for-credit courses are automatically created in Canvas, based on data from the student information system, eight (8) weeks prior to their start date.
- Concluded Course: All academic courses will become Concluded, meaning that instructors lose the ability to edit them, six months after the end date of the term in which the course was taught. At this time, the course also moves from the Current Courses list to the Previous Enrollments list. The six-month grace period allows instructors additional time to edit the course, should they need to address a grade dispute or incomplete.
- Archived Course: All academic courses will become Archived, meaning that they are no longer accessible to instructors or students, 2 years after the end date of the term in which the course was taught. At this point, the course will be removed from the Previous Enrollments list.
- Term: The grading period for which an academic course takes place, like a semester, with slightly extended Term Dates. In Canvas, a course cannot be made available to students before the term start date and grade changes cannot occur after a term end date. This necessitates an adjustment to the normal semester dates.
- Term Dates: For Canvas, OHIO’s Terms begin three weeks before the official semester start date and end the Thursday following the semester end date. For example, Summer Semester 2024 begins on May 13 and ends on August 17. The Canvas Summer Term begins on April 22 and ends on August 22.
- Manually Created Course: Any course in Canvas that is not an academic for-credit course.
Edit the Course Conclusion Date
There may be circumstances in which an instructor would like to edit the conclusion date of a course, to change when a course can no longer be edited. To do so, instructors can set custom dates in your Course Participation Settings. You can find instructions on how to do so in our Controlling Student Visibility in your Canvas Course knowledge article.
There are two things of note:
- If you edit your course visibility dates, this also changes the level of access that instructors and students have to the course.
- Students will be able to edit content, including making new submissions, until the course end date.
- The course will conclude on the course end date, making the course unable to be edited by instructors as well as students.
- Editing your course conclusion date does not impact when the course becomes eligible for deletion.
Schedule of Deletion for Academic Courses
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Term
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Conclusion Date
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Eligible for Archive
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Eligible for Deletion
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Deletion Date
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Spring 2023-24
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December 9, 2024
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May 9, 2026
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May 9, 2031
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Summer 2023-24
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February 22, 2025
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August 22, 2026
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August 22, 2031
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Fall 2024-25
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June 19, 2025
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December 19, 2026
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December 19, 2031
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Spring 2024-25
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November 8, 2025
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May 8, 2027
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May 8, 2032
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Summer 2024-25
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February 21, 2026
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August 21, 2027
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August 21, 2032
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Fall 2025-26
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June 18, 2026
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December 18, 2027
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December 18, 2032
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Spring 2025-26
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November 7, 2026
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May 7, 2028
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May 7, 2033
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Schedule of Deletion for Manually Created Courses
Manually Created Courses that have not been accessed for two years or more will become eligible for deletion Spring 2027. Audits will be conducted each Spring thereafter.
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Last Accessed Before
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Notice Sent
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Eligible for Deletion
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Deletion Date
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January 1, 2025
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March 2027
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May 2027
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January 1, 2026
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March 2028
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May 2028
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January 1, 2027
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March 2029
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May 2029
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January 1, 2028
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March 2030
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May 2030
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January 1, 2029
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March 2031
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May 2031
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