Global announcements allows you to contact all or specific users within an account or subaccount using one message. For example, if there will be a time period of updating or downtime for the account, you may want to let the users know ahead of time so they can plan accordingly.

Global announcements are shown to a user from all their associated accounts. If a user has an account with multiple institutions, the user can view multiple announcements. To help differentiate announcements at the account and subaccount levels, the message also indicates which account or subaccount sent the global announcement.

You can create five different types of announcements: warning, error, information, question, or calendar. When a new global announcement is created, information will display as the default announcement type. To learn more about the announcement types and how they appear to users, view the Global Announcement Types PDF.

Global announcements can be shown during a specific date range. Once an announcement passes its start date, the announcement is immediately visible in each user's dashboard and can be dismissed by the user.

If necessary, you can also edit the text in a global announcement, such as to fix spelling errors. The start and end dates can also be edited until the actual start or end date for the announcement.

Notes:

• Global announcements do not appear in course announcements.
• When users are not enrolled in any courses, they can view announcements from the root account. They can only view sub-account announcements once they have been added to a course within the sub-account.
• The Theme Editor primary color is associated with information, question, and calendar notifications. However, warning and error colors cannot be changed.
• Any edits made to an existing Global Announcement after its start date will not force the message to reappear for users who have already dismissed it. Any substantial changes to the global announcement should be created as a new Global Announcement so that it reappears for all users.
• Global announcements do not appear in the Canvas iOS app.

Term dates, course dates, and section dates are very symbiotic. All of them flow together in all aspects of Canvas. Various dates allow different users to participate in the course.

When a term has concluded, associated courses are placed in a read-only (archived) state. Read-only means that a course is not available for submitting assignments, posting discussions, uploading files, grading, or any other action-based task within a course.

However, course dates and section dates can override term dates, and some overrides may leave the course open for participation.

Term dates, course dates, and section dates can also be added through SIS imports.

In conjunction with this lesson, to see an example of how term dates, course dates, and section dates work together, view the Terms, Courses, and Section Enrollments PDF.

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.