You can use private groups to hide posts published by users during the test phase of a course, from other Learners.
The idea is to create two temporary private groups:
- One private group for feedback
- One private group for pilot
And then deleting the groups once the feedback and pilot phases are over; this will delete all posts published with those groups’ visibility.
When interacting in the course, members should make sure to select this group when commenting.
Private group for feedback
The objective of this group is for users to comment on the contents of the course, and help design the course.
We recommend that members of this group be Authors (to help on the structure), or Experts (to help on the contents).
Private group for pilot
The objective of this group is for users to crash-test the course, as real Learners.
We recommend that members of this group be a small subset of the intended audience.
About visibility rules
All answers below assume that comments in the course were done with the correct visibility group in the comment interface. If a user is part of both the feedback group and the pilot group, they should be extra-careful when choosing comment visibility.
I am part of the feedback group; will I be able to see comments made in the pilot group?
If you are also part of the pilot group: yes.
Otherwise: no.
This is true for the reverse as well.
If a user is removed from a group, what happens to their comments?
The comments remain in the forum, with the same visibility, and the removed user cannot see them anymore (even though they are still their author).
Members from the group can still access the comment (and Administrators from the group can still delete it).
What happens to comments when a group is deleted?
If a group is deleted, all comments made with that group visibility are deleted. See Delete a group.