A common issue with adding people to a course section is the current date is outside of the range of the start and end date of the course section. These settings can be found in the Settings menu of the Canvas course.
Common Cause of Error: Participation is Set to Term
If Participation is set to "Term" and the Start and End dates are greyed out, the course is in a locked status where new users cannot be added. Term start and end dates are populated by the registrar and cannot be changed while Participation is set to "Term".
An example of past Term Participation dates
Solution: Set Participation to Course and Choose Active Dates
In order unlock the course, you will need to change the Participation to "Course", which will remove the term Start and End date and make them editable. You can update those fields to include current active dates. This will allow for the adding of users on the People page. Once users have been added under People, return to the course settings and change the Participation back to "Term".
An example of active Course Participation dates
Canvas Documentation
- How do term dates, course dates, and section dates work in Canvas?
- How do I change the start and end dates for a course?