Moodle Help Guide

There may be some cases where you'd like your students to have access to the course site in Moodle, so your course as a whole needs to be made visible, but you'd still like to restrict student access to specific course items. This might include particular resources, assignments or even whole sections of content you'll be tackling later on in the course, and which should only be released to students when you've reached a particular point in your syllabus or course plan. This page covers how to hide content from all students in an active and visible course until it is ready for release, and how to then make that content visible.

Moodle has numerous options for restricting access. If you would like assistance figuring out the best practice for your course, feel free to get in touch with the edtech team, either at edtech@mtholyoke.edu or by booking an appointment with us.

If you only have a handful of items to restrict from student view, we recommend making this choice on a per-item basis.

1. On your course page, toggle on “Edit mode” in the upper right hand corner.
2. Find the Activity or Resource you'd like to hide from students, then click the 3 dots at the right end of the item to bring up an options menu.
3. Select "Availability"
4. You will see three options for visibility, as noted in the image below:
   
5. "Show on course page" renders the Activity or Resource accessible to students. It is the default setting for all items you add to your course.
6. Select "Hide on course page" to make the Activity or Resource unavailable to students.
7. In some cases, you may want to make an item accessible but only via a link you share. That is the third option, "Make available but don't show on course page." Use cases for this option are rare; most faculty are well-served by the simpler hide and show features in this menu.
8. This item should save upon selection.

Sometimes it makes sense to hide an entire section of your Moodle course, such as a unit you will be covering in the future but don't necessarily want students to engage with in advance. To do this, turn editing on in the top right corner. Select the three-dot menu at the right-hand side of a section title, and use the "hide section" option. You can see this in the image below:

To determine if an item or section of your Moodle course has been hidden from students, look for the "hidden from students" note below the item in question for a quick confirmation. 

Once you have hidden individual items or sections of your Moodle course from student access, it's up to you to decide when to once again make them visible to end users. When you are ready to share this content, you can use the drop-down menu underneath the "Hidden from students" notification on the item in question to set access back to "Show." See more details in the image below: