When you finish a course
When is the Canvas room locked (becomes read-only) after I finish a course?
- Fall semester courses: usually February 1st
- Spring semester courses: usually September 1st
- Summer term courses: usually September 1st
- Rooms for multi-term courses will be locked after the last semester, on the above date.
On this date, your Canvas room(s) for that semester will move from the dashboard to the course list, and you will only have read access to these rooms. It is still possible to download files and view much of the content in these rooms.
Where can I find my rooms after the semester?
On the dashboard, the semester's rooms will disappear (unless you have marked a room as a favorite). You can find your previous rooms under Subjects > All Subjects in the Previous Enrollments section, and you can click into the room. Unpublished rooms you belonged to will also appear here, but you cannot enter an unpublished room.
Favorites: What can I see and do in a locked room?
- Announcements are still accessible, but it is no longer possible to respond to announcements.
- Modules and module elements are still accessible and can be opened and downloaded.
- Assignments: Both the assignment instructions/text in Canvas and your responses are still accessible and can be opened and downloaded, but you can no longer submit new responses or resubmit.
- Grades: Your grades in the Canvas room are still accessible.
- Files are still accessible and can be opened and downloaded.
- Discussions with comments are still accessible, but it is no longer possible to respond to discussions or comments in discussions.
- Pages: You can still view the content of pages.
- Tests (Quizzes): You can enter the front page of the various tests but can no longer take the tests.
- Syllabus is still accessible.
- Calendar: Calendar events associated with the room are still visible.
- Chat is now unavailable.
- Group rooms belonging to the main room are still accessible, but it is no longer possible to edit, publish/unpublish, delete, or add new content, such as announcements, pages, discussions, files, conferences, and more in the group room.
- People in the room menu: If People was visible in the room menu during the semester, it will now be unavailable to you when the room is locked.
Deletion of old Canvas rooms Old Canvas rooms are usually deleted after five years. See separate instructions about the deletion of old Canvas rooms.
Which rooms are deleted?
Course rooms where the semester ended at least five years ago are automatically deleted. For example, if your course started and ended autumn semester 2025, the room will be deleted at the end of autumn semester 2030.
If your course is held over multiple semesters, the five years are determined by the course's final semester. For example if your course started autumn 2025 and ended spring 2026, the Canvas room will be deleted after spring 2031.
Which rooms will NOT be deleted?
Some rooms in Canvas are for cohorts (kull in Norwegian), study programs, study disciplines or other types of rooms that are active over a longer period of time. The timing of deleting such rooms can therefore vary greatly.
What does this mean for you as a student?
If there are room materials that you want to have access to, then you must download this before the room is deleted. Assignments that you have submitted can be accessed in your personal files in Canvas.
Room materials that the teachers have added to the room will not be saved before room deletion, and UiO does not have a backup of materials in deleted rooms.
You will not be notified before your rooms are deleted.