[Modules] Hide locked Module title/contents from students before release date

[stevenwilliams]

Currently in Canvas, when a module is locked until a specific date/time, students can see the module title and contents (although they cannot access them). Some faculty would like the option to hide the title of unreleased modules and materials altogether. This could be accomplished either by not displaying upcoming modules at all, or substituting names such as "Locked Module" for the titles of upcoming material. Although this can currently be accomplished by manually publishing modules on a designated date, the preferred approach would be to allow titles to be obscured as an option for locked material.

This will support faculty who want to stage their entire course at the beginning of the term, and have students move through content that builds on previous weeks, with key concepts being highlighted in later weeks that would provide hints for students completing activities in earlier weeks.

[scottdennis]

Just a reminder that this feature will open for voting one week from now on August 5th.

[carol_luong]

The Announcements section already has the "delay posting" function. Can the same function be replicated in the Modules section as well?

[bryanl]

Providing the ability to obscure modules for future publication (i.e. set for a specific future date & time) will allow instructors to proactively build out their courses in a more complete and thorough manner. 

In essence, it'd provide instructors (and graduate student instructors, TAs) an easy way to automatically release or "publish" their content to their students based on a timer function (i.e. set date/time).  Currently, the only way an instructor can get this functionality is to manually hide/unhide modules.  This is overhead that highly interactive courses would not need to account for if a timer mechanism for modules were present within Canvas.

[aosborn]

I would like to be able to create a module with daily homework assignments prior to the beginning of the week. I want the

assignments to only unlock on the morning of the day that we will be completing it. I think making it an option to lock the dates of the assignments within the module would be very helpful.

[kroeninm]

I was a bit surprised when the Publish/Unpublish option was released a while back so that instructors could "hide" content and assignments from students during development.  I really liked the transparency of Canvas initially that allowed students to see everything - even when under development...but that's a somewhat extreme opinion I know

For this feature request I'm voting it down as it is too close to duplicating the functionality of Publish/Unpublish and Lock Modules by date.  I actually would prefer less options for hiding content as it's starting to get confusing with the options that are there.  You can Lock/Unlock a module by date, can Unpublish/Publish modules and can also lock/unlock each type of activity or publish/unpublish it and now can individually release activities on a per-student basis. 

So in this case, the added complexity outweighs the benefit for me for those few instructors that develop in a way that requires they can't use the Lock and Unpublish options as is to meet their needs.  But just my opinion so I'll be fine if more than 100 like it.

- Melanie

[DaleDrees]

Great reasoning Deactivated user​! Thanks

[asatkins]

This seems like a great solution. We do lock modules but we would like them to see ahead, so it would be great if this feature doesn't replace having them visible.

[kmeeusen]

Yep, I voted this on down for the same reasons as Melanie stated. Canvas is not intended to provide options for every faculty's workflow. When we chose Canvas three years ago, we chose it for its clean and simple UI. Then we taught our faculty to adjust their workflow to suit the LMS. There are valid reasons for this - less bells and whistles mean less chance of cracked bells, and clogged whistles.

[sbenjamin1]

It would be helpful to be able to set a release date of some type.  I build the entire course before classes start, and leave some of the content Unpublished if we don't want it visible right away.  But then I have to remember to go Publish it at the right time.  I would prefer to set a date and time when it would become visible and available to the students so I can set it and not worry about it.

[hvaughn]

As  @kmeeusen  and  @kroeninm  stated, I think there are enough options to hide Module content from students. Leaving a module unpublished hides both the module title and the contents within. I voted down as well.

Now, if we could get color as an option to the module title text...that would be awesome!