Course navigation menu and Student/Staff Visibility of menu items

[marthazumack]

My team of digital education consultants and instructional designers have flagged an issue around the behaviour of items in the Course navigation menu. We've had feedback from local administrators about it causing confusion, particularly when it comes to knowing whether a tool will be visible to students or not. 

At present, it seems that:

• Built-in tools display a crossed-out eye when hidden and may show/hide dynamically depending on whether content is published.

• LTI tools do not display the crossed-out eye icon at all when hidden; they simply disappear from the menu when disabled.

• When enabled, LTI tools show without a crossed-out eye but may only be visible to staff, depending on the tool’s configuration—there’s no visible distinction.

As a result, when getting ready to publish a course, the only way to know with certainty what students will see is via the Student Preview button - very useful, but it would be nice to know from the admin view.

Have others found this causes confusion at your institution?

If so, have you found ways to mitigate this (e.g. training materials, naming conventions, configuration practices)?

[NoahBoswell · Accepted solution]

Hey @marthazumack ,

You are absolutely correct about how the different tools and applications display on the Course navigation menu.

We have experienced this at our institution before, however overtime we've noticed that some app providers will actually leave in the description if some tools are only visible to teachers when enabled (i.e. Edpuzzle, Lockdown Browser). 

Something you could perhaps do, if you would like your staff to be aware of what tools are visible to everyone, or only to teachers or other course specific admin, is create a document with a chart or something like that which lists the visibility and other information you wish to provide? Just a thought!

Noah

[NoahBoswell · Accepted solution]

Hey @marthazumack ,

You are absolutely correct about how the different tools and applications display on the Course navigation menu.

We have experienced this at our institution before, however overtime we've noticed that some app providers will actually leave in the description if some tools are only visible to teachers when enabled (i.e. Edpuzzle, Lockdown Browser). 

Something you could perhaps do, if you would like your staff to be aware of what tools are visible to everyone, or only to teachers or other course specific admin, is create a document with a chart or something like that which lists the visibility and other information you wish to provide? Just a thought!

Noah

[marthazumack]

HI @NoahBoswell , thanks for your reply! I was wondering what you mean about app providers having a description about tool visibility - is that something you see in the app centre when adding an LTI to a course, or is that description visible elsewhere as well?

A document/chart might be the only option here, but it's helpful to know there may be information teachers and admins can check too!

[NoahBoswell · Accepted solution]

Hi there @marthazumack ,

This would be something that the app providers add to their description. Not many apps include this, but some (such as Microsoft teams meetings) will sometimes include in the description or even in the title things in parenthesis like (hidden from students) and stuff like that.

Really, it varies on the app and the provider. Not all of them choose to share this information directly, which is why I like to experiment and see what apps students can and cannot access when the app is enabled on the course navigation.

I hope that helps a bit!
Noah