Once you have created your content (modules, pages, assignments, etc.), you must remember to publish these items so students may access the various materials and assessments. Remember, “green means go!” You want to see the green circle with a white checkmark, which indicates items are published.
In addition to publishing content and assessments in Canvas, you want to ensure your course is published; otherwise, students will not be able to access the course site.
Courses will automatically be published one week prior to the start of the semester. If you are not ready for students to access your course one week prior to the start of the term, you may unpublish the course manually — just remember to manually publish the course on the first day of classes.
To change the publish status of the course, click on Home from the left-hand course navigation menu. On the right-hand side of the page, there are two Course Status buttons: unpublish and publish. By default, the course is unpublished and the button will be red. To change the status to published, simply click the “Publish” button, which will turn green to indicate the change in course status. Once students submit an assessment in the course, the course cannot be unpublished.