> For the complete documentation index, see [llms.txt](https://examind.gitbook.io/v1/llms.txt). Markdown versions of documentation pages are available by appending `.md` to page URLs; this page is available as [Markdown](https://examind.gitbook.io/v1/examind-platform/get-started/lms-integrated/availability-dates.md).

# Availability Dates

How an assessment's Release and Due dates appear in your LMS, and what happens when you change them.

When you link an EXAMIND assessment to your LMS, EXAMIND can pass along the assessment's **Release Date** and **Due Date** - the **Everyone** availability window - so your LMS shows matching dates. What happens depends on which LMS you use, and on whether you are linking the assessment for the first time or changing its dates afterward.

{% hint style="info" %}
Whatever the LMS shows, EXAMIND enforces the assessment's real availability window when a student opens it. But students reach the assessment **through** your LMS, so the LMS's own dates still control its visibility, calendar, and access there - keep them in step with EXAMIND.
{% endhint %}

## How each LMS handles your dates

| LMS             | When you first link                                                                                                                      | If you change the dates later                                                                    |
| --------------- | ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ |
| **Blackboard**  | Sets **Access from** (your Release Date), **Access until** (your Due Date), and the **Due Date**, and adds them to the student calendar. | Only the **Due Date** updates - update **Access from/until** in Blackboard yourself (see below). |
| **Brightspace** | Sets the activity's **Start**, **End**, and **Due** dates.                                                                               | No update - change the dates in Brightspace.                                                     |
| **Canvas**      | Sends no dates; you set the assignment's points and dates in Canvas.                                                                     | No update - manage the dates in Canvas.                                                          |
| **Moodle**      | Manage the activity's dates in Moodle directly.                                                                                          | Manage the activity's dates in Moodle directly.                                                  |

Only **Blackboard** updates anything after the initial link, and only its Due Date. So on every LMS, treat the dates set when you first link as the ones to maintain in the LMS from then on - changing them in EXAMIND afterward will not bring the LMS along.

## Blackboard: keep the Access window in step

{% hint style="warning" %}
When you change an assessment's dates in EXAMIND **after** linking, only Blackboard's **Due Date** updates - the **Access from/until** window keeps the dates it had when you first linked.

Because Blackboard will not let the Access window end before the Due Date, a later Due Date can leave students locked out at the old **Access until** date even though the assessment is still due later. After changing dates in EXAMIND, update the **Access from** and **Access until** dates on the Blackboard item to match.
{% endhint %}

## Canvas: dates stay in Canvas

On Canvas, EXAMIND intentionally leaves date management to you. Because Canvas uses an assignment's due date to drive its own late-submission and grading policies, EXAMIND does not send the Release or Due dates to Canvas - so it can never overwrite a due date or late policy you have set there. Set the assignment's availability and due dates in Canvas directly.