Course & Group Visibility — What to Expect
Course visibility and group visibility are independent settings. Changing one does not automatically change the other.
Course states
Course action | Effect on the course | Effect on the associated group |
Published | Visible to learners in the community | No change |
Unpublished | Moves to Draft, no longer visible to learners | No change — group stays in whatever state it was already in |
Hidden | Removed from search results and course listings | No change |
Republished / Unhidden | Visible to learners again | No change — group does not automatically become visible |
What this means for you
If you want a course's associated group to match the course's visibility (e.g. hide the group when you hide or unpublish the course), you need to manually update the group's visibility setting — it will not happen on its own.
This applies in both directions:
Hiding or unpublishing a course will not hide the group.
Republishing or unhiding a course will not make the group visible again if it was previously hidden.
Action for now
Treat course and group visibility as two separate steps whenever you're changing a course's status. If the group needs to match, go into the group's settings directly and update it there.