Last updated on April 30, 2026
By default, your course shell should have the Assignments, Quizzes, Pages, Discussions, and Files links in the left-hand course navigation menu disabled, or hidden, from student view. You can tell a course navigation link is disabled, or hidden, for students if you see a crossed out eye to the right of the link name. When disabled, these links are still available to the instructor and act as repositories for any content you add to your course.
Some instructors have expressed an interest in enabling them for students to navigate. CTLD strongly advises against this. While these are useful collections for you, allowing students to peruse them can be problematic for several reasons. For instance, you may have published content that you don’t intend for students to access. Additionally, the links in the course navigation menu on the left do not benefit from the same organization options present in Modules; students could easily become lost while trying to figure out what to work on next. The best way to organize content in your course is by adding items to Modules.
If you do still want to enable Assignments, Discussions, Pages, Files, or Quizzes, you can do so from your course settings by following the steps below.
Enable Assignments or Other Course Navigation Links for Students.
- Log in to your Canvas Account.
- Select the Course you’d like to work in.
- Click settings in the left-hand course navigation menu.
- Click the Navigation tab at the top of the page.
- Scroll down the list of links until you see Assignments.
- You can follow the same steps for any of the course navigation links.
- Click the three dots to the right of Assignments.
- Click Enable.
- Click Save at the bottom of the screen.
- Click Home from the left-hand course navigation menu. Assignments will now be enabled for students.
Have Questions?
Need additional support on this or other teaching and learning topics? Please visit us for drop-in support (10am-3pm, M-F) or try one of our self-help tutorials.
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