Online Users - control who can and cannot hide themselves.

Online Users - control who can and cannot hide themselves.

by Rick Jerz -
Number of replies: 12
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I noticed in Moodle 3.6 (it might have appeared a little earlier) that users can hide from being shown in the Online Users block (see attachment.)  Yes, I can understand, especially for course managers, teachers, and administrators who do not want to be shown as being on.  However, I am puzzled that it appears that there is no way to disable this feature.  In my own case, I really don't want students to be able to hide, especially from me.  Yes, I tried it and found that if a student decides to "hide" that even I, as the manager of my moodle, will not see who is online.  And it appears that this setting persists (meaning that a student seems to only need to set it to hide once, and then they are always hidden.)  Worse, this setting controls who I see as online in my own Dashboard!  Before doing an upgrade of my Moodle, I always check my Dashboard to see who is online so that I know if it is a good time to upgrade.  But now, students can hide from me!  

So, I am asking how I can control this feature.  Is this controlled somewhere in permissions or roles?  I looked for a setting somewhere in Site Administration and did not find it.  It seems to be a feature that should be controlled at both the site and/or course level.

Any ideas?

If I cannot control it, I will probably create a feature request for it, but I am not going to do so until I learn if there is already some control provided and that I just don't know where.

Attachment online_users.jpg
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In reply to Rick Jerz

Re: Online Users - control who can and cannot hide themselves.

by Rick Jerz -
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As a temporary solution, I am trying to hide the eye by making it invisible, via CSS.  My problem is that my solution is too general, and it hides some other features scattered around other places in my Moodle.  Might it be possible to modify this code below to make it specific to the "Online Users" block?  

/* To hide the eye from students. 

This works, but creates some problems elsewhere. */

.fa-eye {

    visibility: hidden;

}

Might I be able to do something like the following to make the hidden eye only be applied to the online users block?

/* To hide the eye from students. */

#online-users .fa-eye {

    visibility: hidden;

}


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In reply to Rick Jerz

Re: Online Users - control who can and cannot hide themselves.

by Jon Bolton -
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Hi Rick

Try

.block_online_users .fa-eye {visibility: hidden;}

or

.block_online_users .fa-eye {display: none;}
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In reply to Jon Bolton

Re: Online Users - control who can and cannot hide themselves.

by Rick Jerz -
Picture of Particularly helpful Moodlers Picture of Testers

Hi Jon,

Yep, both work.  I kinda like the display:none method because I have read that the eye will not take up any (hidden) space.  I doubt that it matters, however.

I can see that the eye feature was added to Moodle 3.6.  Maybe it was added along with the ability to easily "message" any online user.  However, I have disabled the messaging system in my Moodle and prefer that students chit-chat with others using Facebook, email, or other messaging systems.  Since I am my Moodle's administrator, I don't want my Moodle to contain information about students casual conversations, such as who they are dating and what they plan to do this weekend.

I still think that there should be an administrative setting for this "eye" feature.  I somehow don't like that students can decide to hide from me.

Thanks much.

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In reply to Rick Jerz

Re: Online Users - control who can and cannot hide themselves.

by Jon Bolton -
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Looks like it came out of MDL-6074 and it's documented at https://docs.moodle.org/36/en/Online_users_block... but I must admit that I only noticed it when I read your post ?

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In reply to Jon Bolton

Re: Online Users - control who can and cannot hide themselves.

by Rick Jerz -
Picture of Particularly helpful Moodlers Picture of Testers

Yep, Jon, that's what I recently saw, too.

I am a little puzzled by the graphic in the docs.  It seems to show either an "eye" or a "message" icon.  I don't use messaging on my system, so I would never expect the message icon to show.  But it seems to me that both icons are in the exact same place?  Or do they accumulate side by side?  Don't know.  The screenshots seem to show either an eye or a message icon.

I am not opposed to this functionality to "hide" oneself, but I think that there should be some administrative control over it.  I really don't think that students should be able to "hide" from their instructor, and I am not sure if I want them hiding from other classmates.  In a physical classroom, I wouldn't want students to put a bag over their head so that they would not be seen.  However, I do understand that in some courses, or schools, that they would want to allow students to hide in order to protect their "privacy."


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In reply to Rick Jerz

Re: Online Users - control who can and cannot hide themselves.

by Mary Cooch -
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The eye is what you, the user, see, and you click to hide yourself. If messaging is enabled then you will see the message icon against the other users. If it is not enabled, then you see nothing against the names of other users.

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In reply to Mary Cooch

Re: Online Users - control who can and cannot hide themselves.

by Rick Jerz -
Picture of Particularly helpful Moodlers Picture of Testers

Mary, I don't think so but additional experimenting might be needed.

I have disabled messaging on my Moodle, so I have never seen the message icon or the eye.  Of course, the eye is new to Moodle 3.6.

So in my system, both the instructor and the student sees the "eye" and can decide to hide.  When they hide, their name no longer shows in the online users block.  Your last sentence implies to me that their name would appear, with nothing to the right.  (Again, their name totally disappears when they hide.)

I also tested this in my MoodleCloud, and yes, if the student clicks on "hide", their name is removed and of course, they can not be "messaged."

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In reply to Rick Jerz

Re: Online Users - control who can and cannot hide themselves.

by Mary Cooch -
Picture of Documentation writers Picture of Moodle HQ Picture of Particularly helpful Moodlers Picture of Testers Picture of Translators

Sorry- I did not express myself well. I meant that you see other users with no icon if messaging is disabled, unless, as you say, they have hidden themselves, in which case you don't see them at all. Each user sees an eye against themselves allowing them to hide themselves.

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In reply to Mary Cooch

Re: Online Users - control who can and cannot hide themselves.

by Rick Jerz -
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Okay Mary, now I think we are together on this.  But it still leaves me wondering if we really want students to be able to "hide" from instructors, and administrators?  The "hide" feature also persists, meaning that the student will always be hidden in this course even when they log back in.  Might you understand the logic for this and let us know?

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In reply to Rick Jerz

Re: Online Users - control who can and cannot hide themselves.

by Gareth J Barnard -
Picture of Core developers Picture of Particularly helpful Moodlers Picture of Plugin developers

Hi Rick,

Do your students need the block?  If not then:

  • Using roles / capabilities etc. hide it from them.
  • Delete any 'block_online_users_uservisibility' entries in the user_preferences table.

If they do, then:

  • Duplicate the block with a new name and remove the functionality.
  • Use the new block and disable the old.

I prefer to fix the crack in the wall rather than plaster over it with CSS.

Gareth

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In reply to Gareth J Barnard

Re: Online Users - control who can and cannot hide themselves.

by Rick Jerz -
Picture of Particularly helpful Moodlers Picture of Testers

Hi Gareth, good questions.  Thanks for asking.

Since my day1 use of Moodle, I have always loved the ability for students to see who is online.  When I was using Blackboard, which lacked this feature, I had always wondered if any students were ever into my course, and I assumed that students wondered if their instructor was ever around.  The Online Users block has been great for showing that people are actually in a course.  So eliminating it doesn't make sense to me in my environment.

I am not sure that I want to start duplicating blocks and creating my own, yet.  I am unfamiliar with this technique, and with little knowledge, think that it would be another thing for me to manage whenever I upgrade my Moodle or install a new Moodle (my guess.)

The "eye" icon feature that is new in Moodle 3.6 is an interesting concept.  I think it can be improved by controlling its settings at either the course level (i.e., course by course) or at the system level.  For example, I don't want students to be able to hide, but I might want administrators to hide, and there may be times where I (instructor) may want to hide and times when I do not.

For now, Jon provided the necessary CSS for me to hide the "eye" icon only in this Online Users block, which works.  I might still create a feature request for Moodle to provide some configuration settings for it (after I give these discussions time to settle down, and get more input from others.)

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