A course is automatically set as Active the moment it is created based on the Osiris link. This means that the course is visible to students in their Course Overview and all published content is visible to students from its start date.
This allows students to view the content of the course even if you and/or your colleagues are not done editing. However, there are three options that you can follow to make sure that students cannot access the study material before you want them to.
Option 1: making content (in)visible
One way of doing it is by making items invisible in the content of your course.
You can hide every unit and its content to students. In this way students will be able to enter the course, but without seeing any of the content.
If you decide to use this option, keep in mind that Announcements cannot be hidden. However you can schedule Announcements, by setting a different Start Date.
Option 2: create a Start Date for your course
You can create a Start Date for your course:
- Navigate to Course Tools in the navbar of your course.
- Click on Course Admin.
- Click on Course Offering Information.
- Scroll down to Course has Start Date, Course has End Date.
Set a start date (and/or end date) to your course:
- Check the Course has a start date box and fill in the specific date and time from the moment the course should become available to students.
Students will see the course on their Course Overview and the start date will appear on the course banner. They will, however, not be able to access the course before the start date.
Option 3: set your course as Inactive
Finally, you can temporarily set the course as Inactive.
To do this:
- Go to Course Tools
- Course Admin
- Click on Course Offering Information
- Scroll down until you see "Active"
- Here you can uncheck the box to set the course to inactive
Make sure to set the box back to active, by following the same steps, once students need to see the course again.