Canvas - Student Enrollment Status Definitions
This document outlines the three enrollment status options, how students interact with a Canvas course when they have a specific status, and how how instructors and admins view each student status in Canvas courses.
Active Status
Students with an active enrollment status have full access and participation in the course. Students can view all course material, submit assignments, post and reply to discussions, and view their course grades.
Inactive Status
Students with an inactive enrollment status have previously enrolled in a Canvas course but have since dropped the course. If a student has an inactive enrollment status, they will not be able to:
- View the name of the course in the Courses List or see a course card in the Canvas Dashboard.
- Send or receive messages in any messaging option from the Canvas course.
- Be added to any groups within the course.
- View grades or assignment comments.
Instructors are still able to access previously submitted assignments and assign grades to inactive student enrollments if necessary. Instructors will see and "Inactive" next to a student when viewing discussions, Gradebook, People, and the User Details page.
Concluded Status
Students with a concluded enrollment status have completed the course. The students can access the Canvas course in read-only capacity. Students with a concluded status can access the course but cannot submit any material. Students can access the messaging feature in the course but can only send messages to the instructors listed in the course.
Course Behavior by Role and Enrollment Status
Student Role
This table lists what students can do in a course with an Active or Concluded enrollment status. The inactive role has been excluded from a student perspective as it provides no access to the course.
| Student Enrollment Status | ||
|---|---|---|
| Behavior | Active* | Concluded** |
| View Courses in Global Navigation | Yes | Yes |
| View and Access Course/Groups Content | Yes | Yes |
| Participate in Course/Groups | Yes | No |
| Message other Users | Yes | Yes (only the instructor) |
| View Course Grades | Yes | Yes |
*Prior access may be restricted by "Restrict students from viewing course before start date" in account/course settings.
**Past access may be restricted by "Restrict students from viewing course after end date" in account/course settings.
Instructor/Admin Roles
This table lists how instructors and administrators view student enrollment statuses in a course.
| Student Enrollment Status | |||
| Behavior | Active | Inactive | Concluded |
| View Names in People Page | Yes | Yes | Yes* |
| Show Names in Messaging Lists | Yes | No | No |
| View Names/Grades in Gradebook | Yes | Yes | Yes* |
| View/Download Assignments | Yes | Yes | Yes** |
| Assign to Groups | Yes | No | No |
| Counted in Course Analytics | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| View User Analytics | Yes | No | No |
| View Access Report | Yes | Yes | Yes |
*Available as an optional setting in the page content
**Only available for students in courses concluded by course or term dates (manual concluding does not apply)