Hidden groups can be created by modifying the group availability options in a Moodle course. This can be very helpful tool when organizing and applying overrides for a collection of students with Disability Resource Office (DRO) accommodations.

This article provides guidance for adjusting group membership visibility, and fulfilling DRO accommodations by using group overrides with the appropriate visibility settings.

Using Hidden Groups in Moodle

In order to create hidden groups, create the Groups manually. When creating the groups, set Group membership visibility settings to determine who can see group enrollments in the course.

For specific guidance on how to create and add users to Moodle groups, see Moodle's "Creating a group" documentation, or the "Creating and Adding Users to Moodle Groups" article.

Group membership visibility options

The group membership visibility options are:

• Visible
  • All participants can see who all is enrolled in the group in the Participants page.
• Only visible to members
  • Only members of the same group can see each other's enrollment in that group.
• Only see own membership
  • Members of this group can only see their own enrollment in that group, and no other members.
• Hidden
  • Only the instructor can view this Group and anyone enrolled in it.

When the group is created and users are added to it, if applicable, any visible Group will be shown in the Participants page for themselves and others depending on the selected visibility option.

For DRO acommodations

For DRO accommodations, use the Only see own membership setting.

Using the Hidden setting will prevent the group from being used for overrides. Only visible to members will allow each student to view one another's accommodation if they're in the same group. Visible will show these accommodations to the rest of the class.

Using hidden groups with Forums

To use group mode with Moodle Forums, use the Visible or Only visible to members setting.

More information can be found in Moodle's "Group membership visibility" documentation.

Additional Resources

Groups (MoodleDocs)

Creating and Adding Users to Moodle Groups (DELTA Knowledge Base)

For additional assistance, please contact the LearnTech Help Desk at learntech@ncsu.edu or (919) 513-7094, or via the Get Help form on the DELTA Knowledge Base.