Moodle

their is a workaround suggestion to move the resources / assignments to a hidden section
which makes them hidden but still available to for linking. it is a nice workaround but have course
layout issues - i do not want to break course flow/layout for this to work.

a discussion about this (similar) issue:
http://moodle.org/mod/forum/discuss.php?d=97288

check out : http://flexknowlogy.learningfield.org/2008/04/30/project-status-moodle-open-mod-for-open-educational-resources/

very much related to this subject

Laia - I would like to see how the community responds to this idea. Would distinguishing between visible and accessible cause more confusion than it is worth? If we continue to use an icon, how do we toggle through three or more options? I think it is important for users to have a sense of what their choices are so it becomes challenging and I would be curious as to how this has been resolved in other UIs. Of course, there is the classic dispute of whether the icon displays the current value or the value to be implemented. How can we be consistent about that and write a rule or set of policies that would allow users to know what they are doing and help developers code it. Are there times/circumstances when the open eyeball should be called hide.gif? I know there have been a couple of time when I've gotten confused about what the open eyeball or closed eyeball really meant depending on the context. I would want to know where we are using that icon throughout Moodle and to ensure that we are being as consistent as possible. Peace - Anthony

At http://docs.moodle.org/en/Student_projects/Usability_issues/Hiding I have studied this issues. My opinion is that it does not make sense to make at module information the resource linkable because it would reduce visibility. Obviously, it would be very indispensable this property in hiding information from students.

The guidelines obtained are the following:

1. The icon displays the current value, but if you put the mouse over the icon, the description is about the value to be implemented.
2. When you use the show / hide, when you put the mouse over the icon, it should say "hide this week for students", not only hide. The whole information about the hiding must be displayed.
3. When you show / enable something, the colour of the description should turn black or dark blue. If you hide / disable something, the colour of the description should turn grey or light blue.
4. Recommendation: it would be more standard and usable to change the visible / hide icon for a textbox "view" and a stand-alone checkbox in order to select if it's visible or not. At least this option would be better at the tables where icons are not necessary because there is enough space.

I need this exact functionality myself. I would like to control the learning path by using the Book module and linking to the various assignments and activities that are hidden. This will clean up the user interface and allow me to keep all resources in one area - hidden from the student.

I also use hidden but linked resources and activities so that I can present them inline with the text.
I'd suggest either:
A) a 3 stage toggle option: visible (open eye), hidden (but accessable - closed eye), locked (hidden and not accessable - closed padlock icon).
B) two options with separate icons

• visible (open eye); hidden (closed eye) - option does not affect accessibility
• unlocked (accessable - open padlock); locked (not accessable - closed padlock icon) - option does not affect visibility.