How do I hide/show items in my course site navigation menu?

A video demonstration is available here: Canvas Navigation Management

As an instructor, you can control which links appear in Course Navigation (the list of tools on the left side of your course site). If the visibility icon (an eye with a line through it) appears next to an item in the navigation menu, instructors can see the item, but students cannot. There are two reasons an item in the navigation menu might be invisible to students:

  1. The item is disabled in the course navigation settings.
  2. The item is enabled, but has no published content. For example, if no files have been uploaded to the course, the Files tool will not show to students.

You can see why a given item is disabled in the navigation by hovering over the eye icon. A tool tip will appear that either reads, "No content" or "Disabled."

If an item is disabled, it can be enabled in the course navigation settings, and vice versa.

If your entire course navigation menu is missing, click on the three horizontal lines to the left of your course site title. This icon will hide and show the navigation menu.

Go to Settings

Click on the "Navigation" tab

Scroll down through the list of items. 

The first group of items on the page [1] contains active navigation items. The second group [2] contains items that have been hidden from students.

Enable or disable items.

To enable a link in the hidden section, click the Options icon (three vertical dots) and select Enable. You can also drag and drop the link into the first section with the other enabled items.

To disable a link in the shown section, click the Options icon (three vertical dots) and select Disable. You can also drag and drop the link into the second section with the other disabled items.

Scroll to the bottom and click Save