.. _Controlling Content Visibility:

###################################
Controlling Content Visibility
###################################

As course staff, you must carefully control which content is visible to
students and when.

You control content visibility through these features in Studio:

* `Release Dates`_
* `Unit Publishing Status`_
* `Content Hidden from Students`_
  
These features work together to control content visibility for students.

.. _Release Dates:

***********************
Release Dates
***********************

You schedule release dates for sections and subsections. By default, a
subsection inherits the release date of the section it is in, though you can
change it to another date.

By defining release dates, you can ensure that content is available to students
as planned without requiring manual intervention at that future time.

Published units are not visible to students until the scheduled release date.
When the section and subsection have different release dates, published units
are not visible until both dates have passed.

Prior to the release date, content is visible to course staff
:ref:`previewing the course <Preview Course Content>` or :ref:`viewing the live
course as staff<View Your Live Course>`.

See:

* :ref:`Set a Section Release Date`
* :ref:`Set a Subsection Release Date`

***********************
Unit Publishing Status
***********************

You publish units to make them visible to students. Students see the last
published version of a unit if the section and subsection it is in are
released.

Students do not see units that have never been published, and they do not see
unpublished changes to units or components within units.  Therefore, you can
make changes to units in released subsections without disrupting the student
experience.

For more information, see :ref:`Unit Publishing Status`.

You can publish all changes in a section or subsection at once, or publish
changes to individual units.  See:

* :ref:`Publish all Units in a Section`
* :ref:`Publish all Units in a Subsection`
* :ref:`Publish a Unit`


.. _Content Hidden from Students:

*****************************
Content Hidden from Students
*****************************

You can hide content from students. Such content is never visible to students,
regardless of the release and publishing status.

You might hide a unit from students, for example, when that unit contains an
answer to a problem in another unit of that subsection. After the problem's due
date, you could make the unit with the answer visible.

You could also hide a unit from students if you wanted to use that unit to
provide instructions or guidance meant only for course staff. Only course staff
would see that unit in the course.

You can hide content at different levels:

* :ref:`Sections<Hide a Section from Students>`
* :ref:`Subsections<Hide a Subsection from Students>`
* :ref:`Units<Hide a Unit from Students>`

.. warning::
 When you make a previously hidden section or subsection visible to students,
 not all content in the section or subsection is necessarily made visible to
 students. If you also explicitly set a child subsection or unit to be hidden
 from students, it remains hidden from students. Unpublished units remain
 unpublished, and changes to published units remain unpublished.
