Overview
Sometimes you need to keep an activity or resource hidden from students. The course may be available, but the activity or resource may not be complete, or may require revision, or you may wish to only make it available to students at a certain time.
This page presents step by step instructions for hiding an activity or resource from student view within an available course.
With the Moodle 3.3 release, there is now the option to keep the activity available but hidden from the students (Stealth Mode).
When a section is deleted with activities inside it, the activities will remain in a section called 'Orphaned activities'. Instructions for Stealth mode and Orphaned activities can be found in the Advanced Guide section below.
When to use
Use these instructions when you need to keep an activity or resource hidden from students while, for example, you edit it.
You can also hide an activity or resource (and any associated label) from students until they have met certain conditions—completed another activity, viewed another resource, achieved a certain quiz score etc. You must set up this kind of conditional release when you create the activity or resource, by completing the Restrict access and Activity completion sections of the Add [activity or resource] page.
You can also restrict access to activities and resources using groups and groupings.
Benefits
Hiding an activity or resource from student view prevents students being confused by a half-constructed or pre-revision course element. It's one of the ways that Moodle allows you to reveal the course in the sequence and at the time of your choice.
Guide
Step by step instructions
- Click Turn editing on at the top right of the page
. - Select Edit next to the name of the activity or resource. From the dropdown menu select Hide.
- Once the Hide option is selected, Hidden from students appear below the activity.
- To redisplay the activity or resource to students, select Edit next to the name of the activity or resource and choose Show
for the activity.
Advanced guide
Stealth Mode Activity
From Moodle 3.3 onwards, staff can put any activity or resource into “stealth mode” to hide it from the homepage.
Stealth activities are hidden from students on the homepage, but can still be shared with students if the lecturer provides them with a link directly. This is very useful in situations where the instructor wishes to control how a student reaches an activity, for example, if a link is shared on the third page of a book activity.
Stealth activities have the label “Available but not shown on course page” next to them.
The new stealth activity feature is more flexible then orphaned activities (the old method) as they can be used in a section in any location, not just ones at the end of a course.
These steps can be used to make the activity or resource available for students but not visible in the course module.
Option 1: When creating a new activity:
In the Common Module settings section, select the Availability option as Make available but not shown on course page.
Option 2: When updating an existing activity:
- Follow the steps to hide the activity or resources as shown above.
- Click on Edit again and then select the make available option.
- This will allow students to access the activity if it is linked through another application but the primary link will be hidden on the course Moodle page.
Orphaned activities
Orphaned activities allow activities and resources in extra sections at the bottom of the course, which will be hidden but still available by students through secondary links.
The following steps describe how Orphaned activities can be used to make activities and resources available but not shown on course home page for students.
- Click Turn editing on
at the top right hand corner of your course home page. - Move the section which you want to hide to the bottom of your sections by using the drag button
next to the section. - Click on the Hide button at the bottom of the page to hide the section from students.
- The section will become hidden from students and display a message as shown. This section will not be visible by students, however students can access the activity if it is linked through another resource.
Additional information
Further assistance
If you experience technical or other issues, consult the Where to get help page.