If one of your courses includes a long or confusing name, you can create a nickname for your course to help you organize your Dashboard. Most courses are created using Student Information Systems (SIS) that generate course names based on terms, departments, and section numbers, and courses with similar names may be hard to distinguish.

Course nicknames appear in the Dashboard, Course Navigation Menu, course breadcrumbs, and notification emails.

A course nickname does not affect the course name at the account or course level; it only changes the name of the course for the individual user who created the nickname.

If users need to know the original name of the course, they can hover over the nickname and the original name will appear. Users can also restore the original name completely by deleting the nickname. Additionally, the course code is not affected and always displays on the course card for course reference.

Note: This feature does not currently apply to the global Grades page and Dashboard sidebar elements such as the To Do list.

By default, courses inherit term dates set for your entire institution. However, as an instructor, you may need to change the start and end dates for your course. Dates can be shorter than the term dates or overlap the term dates.

Adding course dates automatically creates an override for term dates. Entering an end date in the course will tell Canvas to conclude the course on the entered date. When the course is concluded, the course is removed from the Dashboard, and in the Courses list, the course will be moved to the Past Enrollments section.

Additionally, you can also set whether or not students can only participate in the course during the specified course dates. Participation means that students can submit assignments, post discussions, upload files, or take part in any other action-based task within a course. If your require students to only be able to participate during the course dates, they can accept the course invitation, access the course, and look at content, but they cannot fully participate until the first day of the course. When the course is concluded, the course is placed in a read-only state.

If you do not want students to be able to view any content in your course until the course start date, Course Settings also allows you to restrict students from being able to access content. You can also choose to restrict all access to your course after the course has concluded. Learn how to restrict course access.

Because it's built using web standards, Canvas runs on Windows, Mac, Linux, iOS, Android, or any other device with a modern web browser.