This page explains how to distinguish between unpublished courses and published courses in Canvas on the Dashboard, in the Courses menu, and on the All Courses page.

The Dashboard

The Dashboard displays two sections: Published Courses and Unpublished Courses. Unpublished courses display at the bottom of the Dashboard.

Unpublished Courses on the Canvas Dashboard

Courses can be published directly from the Dashboard by clicking on the Publish button in the top left corner of the course card.

Once published, the course will move to the Published Courses section.

The Published Courses section of the Canvas Dashboard

The Courses Menu

The Courses menu (which can be opened by clicking on Courses in the global navigation menu on the left) also displays Published Courses and Unpublished Courses.

The Courses menu in Canvas

The All Courses Page

On the All Courses page, unpublished courses for the current term have a gray background and appear at the end of the section. An example is the Biology 101A course in the image below. Unpublished past and future courses also appear at the end of the section, but they do not have a gray background. An example is the History 201 course in the image below.

On the All Courses page, you can also reference the Published column, which indicates whether a course is published (Yes) or unpublished (No).

Unpublished courses on the All Courses page