Access Controls allow the teacher to control when an assignment becomes available, scheduled, or locked for students.

How to Locate Access Controls:

You can find Access Controls in the Configure app under the Assignments category in the left navigation bar:

Screenshot showing how to access the access controls in the configure app under the assignments category in the left nav bar.

How to Use Access Controls:

Under the Access Controls + Due Dates tab, use the dropdown menus to select if you'd like changes to affect all sections in a course, an individual section, or an individual student:

Screenshot showing the dropdown menus that are a part of the access controls.

This gif shows how to change availability for all students in a section:

GIF showing the different availability options in access controls.

You can also edit the time zone in the upper right.

If you are reusing a course, you can click the "Update Year" button to update dates to the current school year.

Types of Availability:

Availability refers to whether your students can view an exercise or not. There are three availability settings:

Available: Default setting. Students can access and submit this activity.
Locked: Students see the lesson titles on their Assignments page, but they will see a lock icon and will encounter a Locked page if they attempt to access.
Scheduled: Schedule an item to be available during the specified time range and locked anytime before the Start Date (if set) or after the End Date (if set).

Student View of Locked Assignments:

Screenshot of the assignments page depicting gray lock icons that represent locked assignments.

Screenshot of the locked assignment page. The page has the "This Assignment is Locked" message with lock icons displayed.

Setting Access Controls

Expanding Modules and Lessons:

By default, all activities are set to Available in your course. You can configure Availability at the module, lesson, or activity level. If you set Availability for a module, the settings and scheduled times will apply to all lessons and activities underneath it. You can expand modules and lessons to configure settings on the activity level.

GIF shows toggling different lessons and assignments on access controls page.

Schedule Availability:

You can also schedule for something to become available in a specified time range. To do this, set the item you want "Scheduled", and use the date picker to select the window that you want the item to be open for.

Note: Scheduling something at the module or lesson level will affect all activities underneath it.

GIF shows setting dropdown arrow to scheduled and using calendar to set date

Screenshot of of the assignments with scheduled dates.

In the above example, all activities in this module will unlock and become available on 9/21 at 11:00 am and lock again on 9/25 at 7:00 pm. If you want an assignment to always be available after unlocking, you can leave the End Date blank.

See Is Assigned Settings to learn more about hiding unassigned modules from student view.

See Due Dates and Access Controls to learn more about controlling both of these settings from the same page.

See Access Controls for Individual Students for more info on configuring settings on a per-student level.

Access Controls are available as part of CodeHS Pro. To get CodeHS Pro for your school, contact our team at hello@codehs.com.