How to make the topics hidden but available to students

How to make the topics hidden but available to students

by Martin Arturo Martinez Espinoza -
Number of replies: 8

Hi all,

My question is for my current scenario where I am using the following:

Course format: Topics format, Moodle version: 3.6, Theme used: Aardvark 3.3.1, Browser: Google Chrome  71.0.3578.98 .


i know in Moodle we can turn activities or resources to be hidden but available to access to students. However, I was wondering if the same thing can be done for a topic in a way that the topics are not shown at the course home page. For example , in the attached image I have a topic called Introduction and inside I have a Book resource, but because I have it "hidden but available to access to students" it is not shown on the front page.  But, I cannot find that option for my topic Introduction. Can anyone please help me to find a way or if there is a workaround to make sure that at the beginning of the  course front page there is nothing in the middle section? Thanks

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In reply to Martin Arturo Martinez Espinoza

Re: How to make the topics hidden but available to students

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

Hi Martin,

So are you saying that within the 'Introduction' topic (which is not topic 0) that there is a book that is 'hidden but available to students' and because the course is set to 'one section per page' then it is still listed as per your screenshot?

G

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In reply to Gareth J Barnard

Re: How to make the topics hidden but available to students

by Martin Arturo Martinez Espinoza -
Hi Gareth,


More specifically, I want to make sure no topic is seen at the middle section (of course for a course producer or admin they will see all the content in the middle), but for students I want them to see empty , or in the example screenshot I gave no introduction topic. I know this is possible by editing the topic and set it to "Hide topic" but if I do that and if I link the topic using a custom block I created then, the page will show that the content is hidden (which is what I do not what since I want it visible to access to students) as seen on the new screenshot. Do you happen to know what to do or a workaround for this? 

Attachment hidden.png
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In reply to Martin Arturo Martinez Espinoza

Re: How to make the topics hidden but available to students

by Jon Bolton -
Picture of Particularly helpful Moodlers Picture of Testers

I’m not sure I entirely understand what you’re trying to do, or why - but if you put all your (hidden) activities in Topic 0 and don’t have any other topics in your course, then the middle section of your course page will be empty until you choose to show the activities.

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In reply to Jon Bolton

Re: How to make the topics hidden but available to students

by Martin Arturo Martinez Espinoza -

Hi Jon,

Thanks for joining the conversation! Let me be more clear with the current scenario and why I need to leave the middle section empty:

1. As you can see in the screenshot, as a system admin, I have the following format for topics that will be used during the semester (Introduction, Week1, Week2, etc). So unless there is a way for me to create topics within topic 0, your suggestion will not fit my constraints.




2. I know it is needed to have this in the middle for Moodle because, if not, students will struggle to find the content related to the course. However, for that reason I am creating a custom menu where students will have direct links to this content (although, the current version I created is still in the works)



3. Overall, the whole reason is to make the students to feel more the middle of the webpage as their workspace where the content (depending or what the blocks redirect them to) can be displayed and then then can always go back to the beginning of the course page with nothing in the middle (like a fresh start in activities)


These constraints are why I decided to use aardvark and their 3 section theme in order to fit my idea. However, I am struggling in the thing mentioned before. Thus, I would appreciate if you have any suggestion or workaround regarding these issues.

 

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In reply to Martin Arturo Martinez Espinoza

Re: How to make the topics hidden but available to students

by Jon Bolton -
Picture of Particularly helpful Moodlers Picture of Testers

You can’t create “topics” in Topic 0 but you could break the groups of content up using labels with headings - sort of simulating the topics. If you’re creating a menu anyway, then students will still be taken to the right content.

Other than that, I’m out of ideas, sorry 😐 - unless you create a custom course format.

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In reply to Martin Arturo Martinez Espinoza

Re: How to make the topics hidden but available to students

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

What about 'Show one section per page' course layout? -> Course_settings#Course_layout.

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In reply to Gareth J Barnard

Re: How to make the topics hidden but available to students

by Vishal E -

I have a very similar question. I am using Moodle 3.7 with onetopic format.

In a particular course related to our projects, we have created one section per project with links for each one given at course homepage (section 0). 

We have hidden the tabs bar to keep it clean. So far, everything is working well. But the drawer has listed all the sections of our course. Workaround for this drawer problem is to hide section but then the section itself is not available for students.

So is there any way to:

  • Hide the section so that all the section names dissappear from the drawer
  • Hide the section but make it available (just like in case of other activities)
I'm using Fordson theme which is based on Boost.
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In reply to Vishal E

Re: How to make the topics hidden but available to students

by Sigolène Bechetoille -

I was looking for same question for another purpose, and I think I found one solution, but it requires that your moodle admin activate one advanced feature. Look at:

https://docs.moodle.org/310/en/Stealth_activities

It looks like we cannot hide one section and have its activities inside available from other sections via links, BUT, we can have one section with some activities hidden AND accessible (called "stealth" or "furtif" in french)...

My wish is to change the display of 28 quiz activities, instead of boost-theme long text-list, I wish to present them via icon-cards-links, with nice icons and title and colors. I will thus create a section with:

- One visible resource: either a label (html content displayed inline in the section view) or a page (separate view, student will have to click to look at the table of cards) with my table of 28 nice looking cards (linked to hiden quiz activities "Stealth mode" in same or other section)

- Add 28 quizzes activities in mode "stealth"

Would that fit your request also?

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