The access to Canvas content for Student, Teacher, and other Canvas roles is determined by a combination of Canvas Admin settings and the Course Participation setting in Canvas courses. Before reading the information on this page, review the key terminology below.
An academic term is determined by the first date of the quarter and last date of the quarter as published on the Bellevue College Academic Calendar.
A Canvas Term is determined by start and end dates built for a named Term within Canvas. At Bellevue College, Canvas terms are built with a Start Date that is five weekdays prior to the Academic Term and an End Date that is on the same day that finals are due.
Course Participation is a Canvas term and is defined by the period when a user (student or instructor) has an active enrollment in a course (can both view and interact with the content). At Bellevue College, Course Participation is set to Course by an Admin setting and is not editable by instructors. Course Participation dates are created at the time of course creation.
While a CourseWhile a course is active, students can view and submit assignments and quizzes, respond to discussions and announcements, and interact with other students and the instructor/s in the course via the Canvas Inbox. Instructors can view, create, and edit content, assignments, and quizzes, grade and make grade changes, and message students via the Canvas Inbox. Both students and instructors can favorite any active course so that it remains on their Canvas dashboard. Is Concluded
Concluded courses are automatically removed from the user’s dashboard unless the course was previously favorited. Concluded courses are automatically removed from the Compose area of Canvas Inbox. Instructors will need to use an alternative to Canvas Inbox for communicating with students in a concluded course. Because concluded courses are not editable by instructors after the instructor conclude date, instructors are advised to make final changes to their Canvas shells at the end of the quarter and before they lose editing access. For incompletes, instructors are advised to submit an incomplete request with ITS. Instructors are able to course copy concluded courses.
For more information on what students and instructors can access and edit please refer to this Course Participation Access During and After Course Dates article.
Bellevue College has adopted the following schedule for course participation.
| START/END TYPE | SUMMER 2026 | FALL 2026 |
|---|---|---|
| INSTRUCTOR ACCESS STARTS | April 6 | April 6 |
| STUDENT ACCESS STARTS | June 29 | Sept 15 |
| ACADEMIC TERM STARTS | July 6 | Sept 21 |
| ACADEMIC TERM ENDS | Aug 20 | Dec 10 |
| STUDENT CONCLUDE DATE | Aug 24 | Dec 14 |
Need to message students after the term has ended? You can continue to reach out to students after the term via ctcLink email.