Labels and Restrict access

Labels and Restrict access

by Anthony Connor -
Number of replies: 15

Hi,

One of our teaching staff reported a problem with using labels on courses. Labels are setup with a date and time restriction, the labels are associated with an assignment that is released as the same date and time as the that of the label so both the label and assignment remain hidden until then. The problem that his students are seeing is that the label generates a warning or information message in a red box that appears at the top of the course page. This label tells the student about the hidden label and at what date and time it will be available. Is there any way to disable these alerts or messages generated and displayed to the students, especially if the label is hidden from students?

Please see the attached screenshot for a sample of what a student will see. There could be 10 or 15 of the restricted access labels on an individual course and all generate a message each. Once a message is dismissed it doesn't appear for a period of time.

We are running moodle 3.9.10 (20210913). 


Thanks,
Anthony

Attachment labelwarningmessagess.png
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In reply to Anthony Connor

Re: Labels and Restrict access

by Randy Thornton -
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Have you set the restrictions to be hidden in the Label settings? How to do that is in the documentation page for Restrict access settings.
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In reply to Randy Thornton

Re: Labels and Restrict access

by Mary Cooch -
Picture of Documentation writers Picture of Moodle HQ Picture of Particularly helpful Moodlers Picture of Testers Picture of Translators
This is interesting because - although I don't have a 3.9 Moodle - I did try on our sandbox site sandbox.moodledemo.net and if the "eye" is closed, then the label doesn't appear to the student at all - if the "eye" is not closed, then the label does appear in grey with the date it will become completely visible. I expected that. However - I didn't get a pink warning alert, as you have shown on your screenshot, which seems to be something else.
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In reply to Mary Cooch

Re: Labels and Restrict access

by Anthony Connor -
Thank you for coming back to me on this and for the information on the restrict access settings. I was chatting to the teacher earlier and they had previously tried the eye open and closed option but it doesn't matter the warning messages still appear for the students regardless.
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In reply to Anthony Connor

Re: Labels and Restrict access

by Randy Thornton -
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Mary makes a really good point: default Moodle will not show this in the pink / red box, which is reserved for things like Warnings. And the access restriction always shows up below the each label as well, not at the top. Do you have some special plugins or theme that is changing how this appears?
Attachment screenshot_10402.jpg
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In reply to Randy Thornton

Re: Labels and Restrict access

by Anthony Connor -
We use the boost theme and we don't have any custom theme course level css or other code in place on our site. I don't know of any specific plugin installed on our site that would have trigger the warning messages on labels.
The access restriction shows up on the teacher login under each label as you mentioned. I have attached a screenshot of the course view for the teacher.
Attachment labelsupdate.png
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In reply to Anthony Connor

Re: Labels and Restrict access

by Randy Thornton -
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That all looks normal. The question is why is the notice showing up at the top of the course in the red ("danger") box? In standard Moodle (since 3.6 anyway) notifications like this would normally show up in the "bell" icon for users at the top. This is in the course itself, which is why was thinking it was theme or plugin related.

What version of Moodle is this? Are you using any third-party Course format? Do you have "Assignment notifications" set to "Web" in Site admin > Messaging > Notifications?
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In reply to Randy Thornton

Re: Labels and Restrict access

by Anthony Connor -
I understand your question on the red warning box. To clarify the We are using 3.9.10 and the format on this particular course is the Grid format. There are no custom settings within this format so all are the default. The site level Assignment notifications are enabled and set to Email when Online.
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In reply to Anthony Connor

Re: Labels and Restrict access

by Randy Thornton -
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Ah, Grid. Try changing the setting for "Show new activity notification image".
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In reply to Randy Thornton

Re: Labels and Restrict access

by Randy Thornton -
Picture of Documentation writers
Actually, that seems to control only little ribbon on the grid card. So that is not the answer. But I would suspect the course format.

Does this notice show up in courses with the default Topics format? If so, it is not Grid, it is something else.
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In reply to Randy Thornton

Re: Labels and Restrict access

by Anthony Connor -
We tested the 'Show new activity notification image' earlier today but it didn't resolve the warning messages. We will test changing the theme and see if this is the cause of the warning messages. I will update this thread tomorrow hopefully.
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In reply to Anthony Connor

Re: Labels and Restrict access

by Eric Hagley -
A stab in the dark here but in the course settings do you have "completely hidden" in the "Hidden sections" setting?
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In reply to Eric Hagley

Re: Labels and Restrict access

by Anthony Connor -
In the course format settings Hidden sections is set to 'Hidden sections are completely hidden'
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In reply to Anthony Connor

Re: Labels and Restrict access

by Eric Hagley -
Do you have stealth mode on? That might help if it is off (default).
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In reply to Eric Hagley

Re: Labels and Restrict access

by Anthony Connor -
Stealth mode is turned on at site level and it is used widely by many of our teachers in their course design. I will disabled it temporarily and test if it has any effect on the warning labels.
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In reply to Anthony Connor

Re: Labels and Restrict access

by Sam Taylor -
Has the text in the label been copied and pasted from MS Word? I know that's caused a number of issues in the past with lecturers from when I used to work at universities. Perhaps clean out the HTML in the ATTO editor and remove all the 'noise' MS Word brings over (if that's the case).
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