Anyone with hidden course sections shown as not available?

Anyone with hidden course sections shown as not available?

by Helen Foster -
Number of replies: 19
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Hello everyone,

You've probably noticed a course setting called 'Hidden sections' with options 'Hidden sections are completely invisible' and 'Hidden sections are shown as not available'.

If set to 'Hidden sections are shown as not available' then students see the section with label 'Not available' and teachers see the section with label 'Hidden from students'. This is confusing and inconsistent with elsewhere in Moodle. 🤔

Thus, I suggest removing the setting completely in Moodle 4.4, and making it so that if a teacher hides a section then they see it with the label 'Hidden from students' and students don't see it at all (MDL-79918).

Please let us know what you think of removing the setting 'Hidden sections', either by replying to this discussion or by voting or commenting in MDL-79918.

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In reply to Helen Foster

Re: Anyone with hidden course sections shown as not available?

by Rick Jerz -
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I have never used the "Hidden sections are shown as not available" setting, so I would not be bothered by having it removed.

However, I have also thought that some instructors might want to use it, so it is good that you are asking.
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In reply to Helen Foster

Re: Anyone with hidden course sections shown as not available?

by Mary Cooch -
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I agree with removing this setting. I'd noticed it causing confusion on Moodle Academy - and am now off to view that tracker issue smile
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In reply to Helen Foster

Re: Anyone with hidden course sections shown as not available?

by Emma Richardson -
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I agree that this makes sense. It is a confusing setting.
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In reply to Emma Richardson

Re: Anyone with hidden course sections shown as not available?

by Rod Spears -
Yes, both of these settings are confusing. Our faculty thought if we selected the "Hidden sections are completely invisible" that learners would not see the section at all, until they meet the conditions to view it. So several years ago we started using the Grid format because it is the only format that would completely hide the section. 

Then we upgraded to 4.1.1 and that option no longer worked. Learners would still see the section and when they clicked on that section, they see a message telling them it is not available. I thought this was a bug so I reported it to the developer and he told me it was actually a bug prior to 4.1.1 that made it completely invisible and the bug was fixed when we updated to 4.1.1 and also upgraded the Grid module. We discussed it but, he did not agree with the meaning of invisible. 

We would like to see a change that would make it totally invisible to the learners. It is OK for teachers to see the 'hidden from students' message. 
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In reply to Rod Spears

Re: Anyone with hidden course sections shown as not available?

by Gareth J Barnard -
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I completely agree Helen,

I've often found that the options of: "Hidden sections are completely invisible" and "Hidden sections are shown as not available" are confusing to users.  Therefore far better to just have the former as default functionality.

I am 'the developer' that Rob mentions, and the Grid format does implement the setting.  When set to "Hidden sections are completely invisible" then the student does indeed not see the section and the teacher gets a "Hidden from students" message.  I've checked the M4.3 version Rob, and it is working as it should.  I'll double check the M4.1 version when I get a chance.  Humm, perhaps I'll remove it from all current versions anyway as there seems to me to be really positive responses to your post in terms of removing it.

G
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In reply to Gareth J Barnard

Re: Anyone with hidden course sections shown as not available?

by Gareth J Barnard -
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Additional (and not wanting to have topic creep), Grid format version V401.2.1 did have a fix to "Hidden sections are shown as not available", Rob. Please update if you're on a version less than that.  Otherwise for "Hidden sections are completely invisible", then the format is working as expected.

And, I've found the discussion issue: https://github.com/gjbarnard/moodle-format_grid/issues/162 - and that relates to 'restrictions', not 'invisibility', therefore this is separate functionality and the student would need to see restriction messages?  Or is this something else to be considered for improving?  i.e. that students only see things if they are allowed to and not told that they can't if they're in the wrong group (for example).
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In reply to Gareth J Barnard

Should we remove the setting 'Hidden sections'?

by Helen Foster -
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Thanks everyone for your responses. Yes So far it seems that everyone is in agreement about removing the setting 'Hidden sections', and making it so that if a teacher hides a section then it's completely hidden for students.

If you've not yet posted, please do let us know why you think. You can also vote for MDL-79918.

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In reply to Helen Foster

Re: Should we remove the setting 'Hidden sections'?

by Nathan Lind -
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We use "Hidden sections are shown as not available" exclusively, so students know there are more "things" to come and that they will be released as the days of the term progress. Just sharing out use.
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In reply to Nathan Lind

Re: Should we remove the setting 'Hidden sections'?

by Rick Jerz -
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I have thought about this too, Nathan. As I experimented, I saw that Boost shows a "lock" to the right of these "hidden but not available" topics. I use Gareth's Collapsed Topics plugin, and CT shows the words "not available" below each topic. My conclusion (in my case) is that I prefer to show only things that are available in Moodle, and if students want to see all topics, all topics are shown to them in the Syllabus. However, I can see some instructors preferring to show all items.
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In reply to Rick Jerz

Re: Should we remove the setting 'Hidden sections'?

by Visvanath Ratnaweera -
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I have a language issue with "hidden but not available". The "but" joining the two sounds like "not available" is not one would expect. In my ears the two should be "hidden and not available" or "hidden and unavailable" and "hidden but available" (through the link). Nowadays people are used to "hidden" links, also called unlisted or "hashed" URLs. They are resources which you can open only if you know the URL, sometimes the same URLs you would see otherwise as in the case of Moodle, or the link contains a secret code, which is needed to open it, example "unlisted" YouTube videos.
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In reply to Visvanath Ratnaweera

Re: Should we remove the setting 'Hidden sections'?

by Przemek Kaszubski -
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On the sites I administer(ed) I always changed to the default to Completely invisible.

I'm not sure how many of our teachers would use this setting, but I agree with the removal.

That setting was never clear also because it never affected the plain "Hidden (from students)" label or pill displayed for teachers on the course page. I can't count how many times I had to open the course settings to double check that status.

Another pain point for me was and still is the section summary - will it or will it not show to the students when a section is hidden.
I often end(ed) up clearing up any summary info from hidden/collapsed/restricted sections and instead placing additional labels (Text and media items) after the section titles which I could clearly control - as displaying for students or not.
As a related side note, then - the show or not show the section summary is - I believe - also a needed setting for a section's Restricted access. I'd like to be able to Restrict access without completely hiding a section but also hiding the summary, for example - so only the section title is shown.

Kind regards, All.
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In reply to Rick Jerz

Re: Should we remove the setting 'Hidden sections'?

by John Provasnik -
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This gets tricky when some hidden sections are "for teachers only" -- I'd never want students to see these exist no matter the setting for "show hidden topics as..." But--- maybe all I need to do is start doing is simply restrict (instead of hide) the Teacher only section(s) to the "Teacher Role" with the "eye slashed" visibility option... but I think you need a 3rd party plugin to restrict by Role. But I think this is all I'd need to do to get around that.

During summer school, we'd only show the students the sections that they actively had access to -- didn't want to overwhelm them. But during the regular school year, we have all sections shown to them (even those hidden) so they knew exactly what was to come.

I like your idea of letting them see it in the Syllabus -- I'd prefer that if Syllabus was a Moodle activity that dynamically updated as sections were added/removed -- staff always forget to update the Syllabus unless it's the first week of school : )
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In reply to Helen Foster

Re: Anyone with hidden course sections shown as not available?

by David Herney -
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Hi...

I do not agree and I have never heard of user confusion in my work.

I use those options a lot in my course formats (Onetopic and Menutopic) and find them useful in several scenarios.

However, I accept the majority's decision and will adjust my formats if necessary.

(Apologies for my bad English)

Saludos
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In reply to David Herney

Re: Anyone with hidden course sections shown as not available?

by Helen Foster -
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Thanks David for your response. It's good to know about the setting being used, as if it is decided to remove it from standard Moodle, we can maybe leave code there for plugin developers to make use of in custom course formats.

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In reply to David Herney

Re: Anyone with hidden course sections shown as not available?

by Visvanath Ratnaweera -
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More information on: Activity/Section Availability Research Findings. (A course not listed under moodle.org forums and not open to guests.)

I use both. With kids, here in the Asian culture we have youngsters in late teens behaving like kids, for them I leave the things to come completely invisible. For students (tertiary) it is good that they know what will come. Think of the simplest case where the course has a table of contents, each chapter or whatever of that size will be a section on the course homepage. So day 1 one can have all the sections created, but they are marked "Not available". Not only our students are mature enough to understand that these are the things to come but they also push their curiosity. Some even refer things in ahead.

(Edited by Gareth J Barnard - Moderator - Edited for 'Flaming / personal attack' content.  "Participants are reminded to show respect and consideration to others, as mentioned in our site policy. Any flaming or personal attacks will be deleted." In this case I've decided to edit the given content to keep it focused on the discussion of need of the functionality  - original submission Thursday, 21 March 2024, 7:42 AM)

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In reply to Helen Foster

Re: Anyone with hidden course sections shown as not available?

by Quintin Seegers -
This option has always baffled me. "Hide the section, but don't hide it, just make it inaccessible" ?

If the wording of the options were changed to "Hidden" and "Unavailable", it would align more with the functionality behind the option. Removing the option could break existing courses for users that use this option in the way it works.

Personally, I always use the 'Hidden sections are completely invisible' if the section should not be visible at all, and use the Restriction Rules where it should be visible but not accessible until the specified restriction rules are met.

Just my 10c worth (We don't have 2c and 5c in NZ, so I had to round up 😄)

Quintin
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In reply to Quintin Seegers

Re: Anyone with hidden course sections shown as not available?

by Visvanath Ratnaweera -
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If you are saying that the current functionality is useful but needs better wording, that I understand.
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In reply to Visvanath Ratnaweera

Re: Anyone with hidden course sections shown as not available?

by John Provasnik -
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My thoughts on the setting itself:

I think the wordings can be best clarified the way I see some other settings -- instead of simply a "Yes / No", the choices should be phrase. IE: Hidden Section Titles - Dropdown choice 1 (Show titles of hidden sections on course page and Course index); Dropdown choice 2 (Hide titles of hidden sections).

Something like this would let the user know exactly what they're doing over the Yes/No choices - could make it less wordy, but it's better than trying to squeeze all that info into the Setting's Label.
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In reply to John Provasnik

Re: Anyone with hidden course sections shown as not available?

by Rick Jerz -
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I wonder if every section should have an option "Only show section name," the default set to no, or disabled. Alternatively, this could say, "Do not show section contents."

One still has to decide if "only show section name" would show the description when applicable. Well, there we go again, something simple getting more complex.
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