Hidden Moodle course

Tom Brunsdon

Hi,

Please can you confirm expected behaviour in this scenario?

A Moodle course is visible. It has the Panopto block enabled and the teacher has uploaded several videos to the corresponding folder in Panopto. There are students on the Moodle course.

The teacher then hides the Moodle course to make it temporarily unavailable to students.

When the Moodle course is in its hidden state, is the corresponding folder and videos in Panopto:

a) still visible to students/viewers?

b) no longer visible to students/viewers?

Thanks.

Eric Phetteplace

Someone from Panopto can confirm, but we use Moodle and for us the answer is that the course folder is still visible even if the Moodle course is hidden. There is no "hidden" folder state in Panopto. If you delete enrollments from the course, then the Panopto Block will synchronize with the course user groups and remove those people, but that's not related to the course visibility.

Caitlin McCabe

Hi @Tom Brunsdon,

I checked with my colleagues, who confirmed what Eric has said above. They added that if you are looking into archiving courses systematically, you reach out to Support for assistance.

If you have any additional questions, please let us know - we're always happy to help!

Best wishes,

Cait

Tom Brunsdon

Thanks both. This query isn't to do with archiving. It's about hiding teaching materials whilst updating them.

Interestingly, there must be some relation to course visibility with the block. If I....

1) Hide the Moodle course

2) Then enrol a student on the Moodle course

3) Then the vewing permissions for that student do not sync between Moodle/Panopto whilst the course is hidden. The newly enrolled student on the hidden course cannot watch the videos in Panopto whilst the course is hidden (but the students who were already enrolled before I hid the course can still watch the videos as their viewing permissions persist).

Eric Phetteplace

I'm guessing what you're seeing is the fact that the student does not visit the course in between 2) and 3) so the block has no chance to sync permissions. It's my understanding the block syncs the course folder's user groups when it loads on the course page, so only when people view the course. It could be it syncs a particular user's permissions only when that user visits the course (and not just any user), in which case it would make sense that a student added to a hidden course isn't added to the viewer group because they can't visit the course. That seems to be the case based on this minimal test:

• Create a new course that starts hidden, Panopto folder is created automatically, its user groups are empty
• Add an instructor account and a student account
• View the course as instructor, they are added to the Creator group, but the student is not in the Viewer group
• Set course visibility to "show", view course as instructor, no change (student still not in group)
• View course as student, student is added to the Viewer group

I suspect there are differences depending on how a course is created. We use the database enrollments plugin and I'm pretty sure our course folder viewer groups are initially populated with students when a new course is created, but that was not the case in my test above where I manually enrolled students after creating the course.

Tom Brunsdon

" It's my understanding the block syncs the course folder's user groups when it loads on the course page, so only when people view the course"

I don't think the above is correct. The block syncs the course folder's user groups when a student visits ANY course with the block on it. Assuming all courses are visible: If a student visits course A, it will also sync permissions for courses B, C, D and E.

However, saying all of that, I believe the way our instance syncs instantly. If I enrol a user onto course A, then they gain viewing permissions instantly without needing to visit Moodle.