How do I publish (or unpublish) my Canvas course site?

All new Canvas course sites are unpublished. This means that any students that have registered for the course and have accounts on the course site will not be able to access the course site until the instructor publishes it.

Important things to know about unpublished course sites:

  • Instructors can add other Instructors, TAs or Course Designers to the site and they will be able to access an unpublished course site.
  • Instructors cannot email the students through Canvas if the course site is unpublished.
  • Course Announcement emails will not be sent from an unpublished course site

To publish a Canvas course site, click on Home in the course navigation menu

Under Course Status, click "Unpublished"

A dropdown menu will appear.

Select "Publish"

When you publish the course site, you will need to select a Home Page for the course.

Select a Home Page, then click Choose and Publish

Once you publish your Canvas course site, you do not have to republish it again if you add new content. You only have to publish the site once.

You can unpublish the course by going to the Home page,  clicking "Published" to reveal the dropdown menu, and selecting "Unpublish." This will turn off student access to the course site. However: Once you have added a grade for any student, you can no longer unpublish the course site.

To turn off student access to a course site once the semester has ended, see End of the Semester options for Instructors.