Visibility

Owned by Liam Tanner
Mar 05, 2021
4 min read

Course, program and certification visibility

A site can either use normal visibility or audience-based visibility. This is controlled by the Enable audience-based visibility setting in Quick-access menu > Configure features. The default site setting is Off, so it uses normal visibility.

The behaviour of courses is similar to programs and certifications, but not exactly the same.

Normal visibility

Each course, program and certification has a Visible setting.

Note that if a category's visibility is turned off, all courses, programs, certifications and sub-categories that are contained in it will also be marked hidden. If a category is subsequently unhidden, programs and certifications will be unhidden, while courses and subcategories will return to their previous state (so if a course was marked hidden before its parent category is marked hidden then the course will still be hidden after the parent category is marked visible).

Courses

The Visible setting determines whether the course appears in the list of courses. Apart from users granted the viewhiddencourse capability (Course Creators, Editing Trainers, Trainers and Staff Managers by default), users are not allowed to enter the course, even if enrolled. When hidden, the courses will not be displayed in the user's Record of Learning: Courses.

This setting allows a course administrator to set up up a course as hidden and assign the learners to it, without the learners being able to see the course. The course administrator can then confirm that the details of the course and the set of assigned learners are correct before making the course visible to the learners at the appropriate time.

The Course start date doesn't affect visibility or availability of the course.

Programs and Certifications

If the program is visible, it will appear in program listings and search results and learners will be able to view the program contents.

If the program is not visible, it will not appear in program listings or search results but the program will still be displayed in the learning plans of any learners who have been assigned to the program and learners can still access the program if they know the program's URL.

Available From and Available Until settings allow you to 'hide' your program completely. It will not appear on any program listings, except to administrators. Even if learners try to access the program URL directly, they will not be allowed to enter. Learners will be able to find and enter the program during the period specified by the dates but will be prevented from accessing the program outside of those dates.

Category visibility

It is also possible to hide a category. Setting a category as hidden indicates that you don't want people to know what is inside the category. It does not prevent people from seeing the category (although it will be hidden when unnecessary) and it does not prevent access to any of the items that are contained in the hidden category.

For example, given the following setup:

Cat A
  -> Course A
  -> Cat B (hidden)
      -> Course B
      -> Cat C
          -> Course C
  -> Cat D

A user who cannot see Cat B will see the following:

  • When viewing any category, the side bar navigation will show all three categories, and the drop down will have Cat A, Cat C and Cat D
  • When viewing Cat A, they will see Course A, and Cat D
  • When searching courses within Cat A, they will find all three courses
  • They cannot view Cat B (there should be no links that can be clicked to go to this category, and the error message for accessing the hidden course should not be accessible)
  • When viewing Cat C, they will see Course C, the breadcrumbs will show Cat A and Cat B, but only Cat A will be clickable (as per previous remake)
  • When viewing Course B, the breadcrumbs will show Cat A and Cat B, but only Cat A will be clickable
  • When viewing Course C, the breadcrumbs will show Cat A, Cat B and Cat C, but only Cat A and Cat C will be clickable

Visibility summary

Normal visibility hidden means:

  • Don't show in courses/progs/certs search
  • If assigned, don't show in RoL for learner
  • If assigned to learner, show and mark program "hidden but accessible" in RoL for manager
  • If assigned to learner, show and mark course "hidden and inaccessible" in RoL for manager
  • If assigned, can access program
  • If assigned, cannot access course
  • If assigned, program can't be added to LP
  • If assigned, course can't be added to LP
  • If assigned, show program in RL

Audience visibility hidden means:

  • Don't show in courses/progs/certs search
  • If assigned, don't show in RoL for learner
  • If assigned to learner, show and mark program "hidden and inaccessible" in RoL for manager
  • If assigned to learner, show and mark course "hidden and inaccessible" in RoL for manager
  • If assigned, cannot access program
  • If assigned, cannot access course
  • If assigned, program can't be added to LP
  • If assigned, course can't be added to LP
  • If assigned, don't show program in RL

Audience visibility other options and normal visibility not hidden means that the items show everywhere.

Rule: If something is assigned to a learner, the manager should know about it.