Using: Moodle 2.4.1
I have a course with a summary and a few topics underneath. I want to create a Glossary and two pages and put them in a sidebar.
I don't want the Glossary or the two pages to appear as an activity in the course. They are just supplemental. Is there a way I can make this happen in a block?
I attached an image of what it looks like now. I want to remove the activities I have highlighted in red and move them to a block.
Any ideas out there on how to make this happen?
You can hide the glossary in the course, then link a Randome Glossary entry block to it. This works, though any images in the glossary entries will not show for students. You can link to pages from an html block as well. If you create a page offline and save it as an html page, you can add an html block and link some text to (and upload) the page you created.
See screen capture for how we use both on our front page. (Note, we normally don't hide the glossary, because our entries have images associated with them.)
When you Hide the Glossary in the course then you can't access the Glossary at all.
I did what you suggested, Hide the Glossary and create a Random Glossary Entry block. When I view these changes as a student, the random glossary entry works but the link to the Glossary is gone. If I try to access it at all it says it's been hidden and I don't have access.
I would prefer not to create my own page outside of Moodle to link to. I want to take advantage of Moodle's glossary, just can't seem to get it where I want it.
Any other ideas out there?
You could hide the glossary and override permission on just the glossary to allow moodle/course:viewhiddenactivities for your student role. The link from the random glossary block should then work. Instead of using the random glossary block you could add that HTML block and create in it a link to the glossary's direct address (copied from your address bar from within the glossary). Heck, grab the glossary icon url and use in your link and it'll look exactly like it does in the main body. You can do the same with the other two activities.
To clear up any confusion, the HTML block doesn't link to an outside webpage; it gives you an isolated space where you can write your own webpage. By default it uses the rich text editor interface so you can easily create the links if you're not HTML savvy.
Christian,
I was hoping this would work but no luck. See attached image.
As a student, I can see the greyed out Glossary even though it's "hidden".
Just so you know my steps. I clicked on "Hide" for the Glossary. Added an HTML block, added the code (the link in the resources block I created works) and changed the permissions so that students can view the glossary (viewhiddenactivities).
Any other ideas?
-Gina
Almost there. You'll just need to change the behavior of hidden activities to be entirely hidden rather than greyed out. Update the activity and you'll see the dropdown menu at the bottom of the Restrict Access section.
Hi Christian,
So I found several places to change that...still no go.
1. In the Glossary> Update
2. In the Settings> Course> Edit Settings
3. Settings> Courses> Course default Settings
I changed all of them to "Hidden sections are completely invisible" - no luck. When I do a search for "hidden" those are really my only options.
I even cleared the theme cache and browser just in case my browser wasn't updating correctly.
Still see it when I am signed in as a student.
I can only attach one image...but I have images for all if you want to see I actually did it.
blergh!
-Gina
Hello. You don't need to hide the glossary or change permissions. Move your glossary to a topic you don;t need. If you need all the topics to be visible then add another topic just for that glossary. Then reduce the number of topics by one - don't hide with the eye; just reduce the number. Then your glossary block should show the entried. Perhaps #7 here might help: Course FAQ
Sorry to send you down rabbit trails, Gina. Looks like I misunderstood how that permission works. I thought it would give access but it actually overrides the hide behavior to always show greyed out. Mary's solution is much clearner. There I go again, finding the long way around. Thanks, Mary!
Original Question:
Using: Moodle 2.4.1
I have a course with a summary and a few topics underneath. I want to create a Glossary and two pages and put them in a sidebar to the right.
I don't want the Glossary or the two pages to appear as an activity in the course. They are just supplemental. Is there a way I can make this happen in a block?
I want to remove the activities from my topic and move them to a block.
Mary!
You are awesome! That worked and I have played around as a student and it doesn't seem to break it (or show up somewhere weird).
For those who may be reading this and aren't quite sure what was done:
Thanks to Kevin and Christian as well for their suggestions. Even if it didn't get me where I wanted I figured out out other things that I needed to get done!
May you all have all the chocolate you want and never gain an ounce!
-Gina
