How do you see past courses on Canvas?

Where are old classes on Canvas?

On the All Courses page. Instructure’s student guide gives these steps:

1. In Global Navigation, click Courses, then All Courses.
2. Scroll to Past Enrollments. The page groups courses into All Courses, Past Enrollments, Future Enrollments and Groups.
3. Click a past course’s name to open it.

Each row shows the course’s original name, any nickname you gave it, its term and your role. With years of courses, the sort icon in the header sorts by favorite status, name, nickname, term, enrollment status or published status.

What can you still do in a past Canvas course?

Mostly look. Instructure’s course access chart for students compares what works during a course with what works after access ends. A selection:

Instructure notes that access to these features “depends on whether your administrator has enabled or disabled the permissions,” so your school may allow less. If you will want your papers, notes or files later, download them while the course still opens. Submitting is one of the things that stops (why won’t Canvas let me submit?).

Why can’t I see my past courses on Canvas?

Usually a school setting. The cases Instructure lists:

• Your school hides them. “Some institutions may not allow past enrollments to display in the Courses page,” and “Access to concluded courses may be restricted by your institution.”
• The course never concluded in Canvas. If a finished course is still on your Dashboard, Instructure says “it is likely that it is missing an end date in the course settings. As a student, you cannot change this.” Your instructor has to add the end date.
• You dropped it. Instructure says “it may take up to 24 hours for your enrollment status to update in Canvas.” If a dropped course is still there after that, confirm with your school that the drop went through.
• It was never published. “Courses must be published by your institution before you can access them.”

If a course should be there and isn’t, ask your instructor or your school’s Canvas support. Course dates and access settings are theirs to change.

How do you see old grades on Canvas?

Open the course from Past Enrollments and click Grades. Instructure’s steps:

1. In Global Navigation, click Courses, then All Courses.
2. Under Past Enrollments, click the name of the concluded course.
3. In Course Navigation, click Grades.

Instructure adds that “if viewable, concluded course grades can also be viewed from any active course,” and that the total may show as points or as a percentage, depending on how the course calculates grades. Two limits apply: “Your instructor may restrict you from viewing grade totals,” and “Some institutions may restrict the option to view concluded courses.”

If the total is hidden, our guide on why a Canvas total grade is hidden covers what you can still see, and the free Canvas grade calculator can rebuild a grade from your scores. To combine final grades from several terms, use the GPA calculator.

How do you hide old courses on Canvas?

Favorite the courses you want, and the rest drop off. Instructure says that once you favorite at least one course, “only your favorite courses will appear in the Courses list,” and “the Dashboard will only display favorite courses.”

1. Go to Courses > All Courses.
2. Click the star next to each current course. A filled star means it is a favorite.
3. Open the Dashboard. Only starred courses show as cards.

Rules worth knowing, all from Instructure’s guides:

• “You can only favorite active courses.” Future and past enrollments can’t be starred.
• “Favorited courses are removed from the Card View Dashboard when the courses are concluded.” They keep a filled star in the Courses list, and you can click it under Past Enrollments to unfavorite them.
• “After you have manually favorited at least one course, Canvas automatically favorites any new published course enrollments for you.”
• On a course card, the Options icon opens a Move tab with an Unfavorite option, which removes the card. It “only displays if you previously selected favorite courses.”
• With no favorites, the Dashboard fills itself with active courses and keeps “the 20 most recently added active courses.”

A finished course that is still active because it lacks an end date can be hidden the same way. Instructure’s advice for that case: “you can use course favoriting to determine which courses appear on your dashboard.” You can also give a course a nickname of up to 59 characters from its card’s Options icon, which renames it only for you.

Hiding changes your view only. The Instructure guides we read describe no way for a student to remove a course from the All Courses page itself. Google Classroom is different: students can unenroll from a class when their school allows it (leaving a class on Google Classroom).

Questions people ask

Where are my old classes on Canvas?

Click Courses, then All Courses, and look under Past Enrollments. If that heading is missing, your school may not show past enrollments.

Why did my old course disappear from my Canvas Dashboard?

Instructure says favorited courses are removed from the Card View Dashboard when they conclude. You can still find the course under All Courses, in Past Enrollments.

Can I still submit work in a past Canvas course?

No. Concluded courses are read-only, and Instructure’s access chart lists submitting assignments, commenting and taking quizzes as unavailable after access ends.

Can I see my grades from a past Canvas course?

Usually. Open the course from Past Enrollments and click Grades. Your instructor may hide totals, and some schools restrict access to concluded courses.

How do I remove an old course from my Canvas Dashboard?

Star the courses you want under Courses, then All Courses. Once one course is a favorite, the Dashboard shows only favorites. A favorited past course can be unstarred under Past Enrollments.

Why is a course I finished still on my Canvas Dashboard?

Instructure says it is likely missing an end date, which only your instructor can add. Favoriting your current courses keeps it off the Dashboard in the meantime.

Sources

All fetched and checked October 29, 2026.

• How do I view all my Canvas courses? (Instructure, student guide)
• How do I view my grades in a concluded course? (Instructure, student guide)
• Course Participation Access During and After Course Dates (Instructure)
• How do I customize my Courses list? (Instructure, student guide)
• How do I view my courses in the Card View Dashboard? (Instructure, student guide)
• Removing a course from my dashboard (Instructure)

How this guide was made. We read each Instructure guide listed above on October 29, 2026 and quote them directly. The table is a selection of rows from Instructure’s student access chart, comparing its “During Access” and “After Access” columns. We wrote the guide with AI assistance and checked each quote against its source, then re-checked every quote against the live pages on November 2, 2026.

Related guides: Can you see the class average on Canvas? · What can teachers see on Canvas? · Why is my Canvas total grade hidden? · How do What-If grades work in Canvas? · All guides · Canvas · Canvas grade calculator · GPA calculator

Written by the company that makes Silent Student. Silent Student is not affiliated with or endorsed by Instructure. Canvas and Instructure are trademarks of Instructure, Inc.