I've created a label that is displayed on my course's page under the lesson description (typically 12 lessons per course). The label holds seven graphics that represent different elements of the course (lesson, quiz, assignment, links, printerfriendly version, faqs, and forum). After arranging these graphics in the label, I open the element (such as lesson), copy its URL, and then edit the label, hyperlinking the appropriate graphic to the URL. I then hide the text line that directs people to the same element. I've already hyperlinked all of the lessons and printerfriendly versions in 4 courses to their respective graphics in the lable and hid the text lines, then changed my role to Student, and it's been working very well. For the Links that I'm providing for the course, I added a page and then entered the links on that page, hyperlinking the Links graphic to that page, and as with the lesson and the printerfriendly lesson, hid the page. Again, no problems.
Now, we come to the forums. I've created forums for each lesson in each course. I open the forum, copy its URL, and then hyperlink the graphic in the label to that URL. I thought it was working as well as the others, but then, I discovered that when I changed my role to Student, a page opened that said that activity was hidden. It appears that the only way a student can see the forum is if the text line is visible, which defeats the purpose of hyperlinking the forum to the graphic.
To see if this was impossible to do with forums, I changed my role to others as well. In the Manager, Teacher, and NonEditing Teacher roles, the hyperlinked graphic works perfectly. In the Course Creator, Student, and Guest roles, a page opens saying this activity is hidden.
Now, remember that the text line is hidden on the course page, but even though that line is hidden, some roles can still see the forum while others can't.
I tried to use this information to determine what settings I need to change so students can access the forum by clicking the graphic with the text line hidden, but I haven't been able to figure it out. Can anyone help? I've seen some articles about using "Stealth mode," but I'm not sure how that works. Thank you.
J. Underwood
