Published Canvas courses allow students to access your course before the start date. This access is limited to "read only". Students will not be able to participate in your course until the official first day of the term.

Note: Students will not receive notifications or messages from the course until the students have access to the course.

Allowing student early access to a Canvas course can be done with the steps below.

1. Log into Canvas
2. Go to the course you wish to allow early access to.
3. Publish your course by clicking the "Publish" button in the upper right hand corner.