Canvas Guides (English)Canvas GuidesCanvas Instructor GuideDiscussionsHow do I publish or unpublish a discussion as an instructor?

How do I publish or unpublish a discussion as an instructor?

As an instructor, you can publish or unpublish a discussion in a course. Unpublished content is invisible to students, and graded discussions are excluded from grade calculations.

Note: If you use Modules in your course and add a discussion to a Module, please be aware that the state of the Module overrides the state of all module items. You may want to consider leaving discussions unpublished until you are ready to publish the entire Module. For more information, learn more about publishing modules.

Open Discussions

Open Discussions

In Course Navigation, click the Discussions link.

View Status of All Discussions

View Status of All Discussions

On the Discussions Index Page, you can view the status of each discussion. Unpublished discussion display a Unpublished icon [1]. Published discussions display a Published icon [2].

Publish Discussion

Publish Discussion

To publish a discussion, click the discussion's Unpublished icon.

Unpublish Discussion

Unpublish Discussion

To unpublish a discussion, click the discussion's Published icon.

View Cannot Unpublish Icon

Discussions with student submissions cannot be unpublished. The Published icon for these discussions is lighter in color to indicate discussions that cannot be unpublished.

View Status within an Individual Discussion

View Status within an Individual Discussion

Within individual discussions, the published status displays.

Publish Discussion

Publish Discussion

To publish a discussion, click the discussion’s Unpublished icon. The icon will change to display the Published icon.

Unpublish Discussion

Unpublish Discussion

To unpublish a discussion, click the discussion’s Published icon. The icon will change to display the Unpublished icon.

Note: Content with student submissions cannot be unpublished.

Discussions Student View

Discussions Student View

When students view discussions, they cannot see any of the actions involved with publish status, such as published and unpublished icons and setting icons. Students see only published discussions.