To meet Title II accessibility requirements and ensure equitable access for all students, we encourage faculty to regularly review course content in Canvas. As you assess your materials, consider the following flexible decision tree to help you determine whether to keep, archive, or delete content.
This
guidance encourages flexible decision-making while aligning with
accessibility standards and long-term course management goals.
Canvas courses often build up
content over time—pages, quizzes, files, assignments, discussions—that
are no longer used. A regular cleanup helps keep your course usable,
compliant, and easy to maintain.
Use this flexible decision tree to decide whether to Keep, Archive, or Delete different types of content—Pages, Files, Assignments, Quizzes, Discussions, Modules, and more.
Keep content when it is actively supporting teaching and learning.
Before you keep something, ask:
Is this visible to students (published or in a module)?
Is it being used now or will it be reused soon?
Is it essential for compliance, assessment, or accreditation?
Keep content such as:
Published pages with current instructions or course materials
Assignments and quizzes that align with your outcomes
Accessible files that students need to view or download
Active discussions being used for participation or reflection
Modules that structure your course and guide student navigation
Tip: If something is useful but inaccessible, fix it or consider temporarily unpublishing it while you work on it.
Archive content that’s no longer student-facing but still valuable to you.
This includes older content, drafts, or resources you may want to revise or refer to later. Archiving helps you retain important work while reducing clutter and unnecessary remediation in Canvas.
Archive content such as:
Unpublished or outdated pages you might revise
Retired assignments, quizzes, or rubrics you want to reference
Instructor-only notes or planning materials
Files not currently used in a course but worth saving
Supplemental materials not shared with students this quarter
Tip: Create a "Faculty Archive" module or folder inside Canvas and mark it hidden from students. Do not choose these materials when copying your content to your live course. Read the How do I select specific content as part of a course import? guide for instructions on how to do this if needed.
Delete content that is no longer relevant, useful, or necessary.
Removing unused content helps clean up your course and prevents it from negatively affecting your accessibility or cluttering your workflow. If you don’t need it and wouldn’t use it again—let it go.
Delete content such as:
Old quizzes or pages with outdated information
Duplicate files or renamed versions (e.g., syllabus-final-final.pdf)
Empty discussions or abandoned assignment shells
Low-quality scans or inaccessible files with no plan to fix
Student-facing content you’ll never reuse