Overview
This article explains the application setting “Select elements that you want to hide at Student’s dashboard (portal’s main page)” found under Dashboard Settings in the system administration area. This setting controls which sections (widgets) appear on the home dashboard page that Student (Learner, Pupil, Scholar) users see immediately after logging in to the portal.
What This Setting Does
This setting lets an administrator choose, from a fixed list, which sections of the Student dashboard should be hidden from view for all students at the institution. It is presented as a list of checkboxes (a multi-select list): whichever sections are checked will no longer appear on students’ dashboard home page. If nothing is checked, which is the default, all sections display normally, provided their own individual requirements are met (see “Prerequisites” in the Notes section below).
The dashboard sections that can be hidden are:
- Calendar – a small calendar preview on the dashboard.
- Class/Course/Teacher Count – a summary count of the student’s classes, courses, and Teachers (Educator, Instructor, Tutor, Professor, Lecturer)s.
- Timeline – a feed of recent activity and updates relevant to the student.
- My Teachers – a list of the student’s assigned Teachers.
- Get Mobile App – a promotional banner inviting the student to download the mobile application.
- Timetable – the student’s daily class schedule.
- Internship (Internship: Traineeship, Apprenticeship, Work Placement, Practicum) – a summary panel related to internship or thesis work.
- My Subjects (shown in the selection list as: MySubjects) – a list of the student’s assigned Subject (Module, Course, Unit)s.
Note: the selection list shows the technical option names above exactly as listed; there is no separate friendly label shown on screen for each checkbox.
Where It Is Used
This setting only affects the Student dashboard – the main home page students land on right after signing in to the portal. It has no effect on any other page or report (for example, grades, attendance, or announcement pages are unaffected). It only applies to users with the Student role; the Teacher, Parent, and Secretary/Staff dashboards are controlled by their own separate settings (see “Related Settings” in the Notes section).
This setting is configured once by an administrator for the whole institution. It cannot be set individually per student or per class – when a section is hidden, it is hidden for every student at that institution.
In the administration area, the setting is located under: Dashboard Settings > Dashboard Settings Rights, labeled “Select elements that you want to hide at Student’s dashboard (portal’s main page).” If the institution has renamed “Student” to an alternative term (such as Learner or Pupil), that term will appear in the label instead.
Business Logic / Behavior
- The setting is a multi-select list. An administrator can select any combination of the eight sections listed above; each selected section is removed from the dashboard for all students once the setting is saved.
- This setting can only hide a section that would otherwise be shown – it cannot force a section to appear if the institution has not enabled the related feature. For example, the Internship section only shows in the first place if the institution actively uses the Internship feature; the Get Mobile App banner only shows if the mobile app feature is included in the institution’s plan; and My Teachers, My Subjects, and Timetable each depend on the related menu being available to students.
- Hiding a section also means the system does not need to gather the information for that section, so selecting more sections to hide can make the dashboard page load a little faster for students, particularly at institutions with a large number of classes, courses, or teachers. (This is a reasonable inference from how the setting behaves, not a separately measured or guaranteed result – see “Assumptions” below.)
- This setting is specific to Students. Equivalent, independent settings exist to hide dashboard sections for Teachers, Parents, and Secretary/Staff users – selecting sections to hide in one of these settings does not affect the others.
- Some institutions use a simplified “Light Mode” dashboard for students. When Light Mode is turned on for students, its own list of hidden sections takes over and is used instead of this setting for as long as Light Mode stays active for those students. Administrators using Light Mode for students should manage hidden sections from the Light Mode setting instead of this one, to avoid the two settings conflicting with each other.
Example(s)
Example 1: Hiding unused features at a school
Alpha Elementary School does not run an internship program and has not purchased the mobile application add-on for its subscription. To avoid showing students an empty Internship panel and an irrelevant “Get Mobile App” banner, the school’s administrator opens Dashboard Settings > Dashboard Settings Rights and, in “Select elements that you want to hide at Student’s dashboard,” selects: Internship and MobileApps.
After saving, students at Alpha Elementary School no longer see those two sections. The Calendar, Class/Course/Teacher Count, Timeline, My Teachers, Timetable, and My Subjects sections continue to display as before.
Example 2: Simplifying the dashboard at a college
Beta City College delivers most of its programs through self-paced online study and does not use a fixed daily class Timetable or a Calendar view on the dashboard. The administrator selects Timetable and Calendar in the same setting. After saving, students at Beta City College see a simplified dashboard that highlights My Subjects, My Teachers, Timeline, and Class/Course/Teacher Count, without the Timetable and Calendar sections that do not apply to their study format.
When to use
When to Hide a Section
- The institution does not use the underlying feature at all (for example, no internship program, or no mobile app add-on).
- A section would otherwise appear empty or irrelevant to students, which can be confusing.
- The institution wants a simpler, more focused Student dashboard with fewer sections.
- The institution wants a slightly faster-loading dashboard by removing sections that are not needed (see “Business Logic / Behavior” above).
When to Keep a Section Visible (Leave Unselected)
- The related feature is actively used by the institution, and students benefit from seeing it at a glance (for example, an active Timetable or an available mobile app).
- During the initial setup of a new institution, it may be preferable to leave the full dashboard visible so that staff can review all sections before deciding what to hide.
- When in doubt: leaving all sections unselected (the default) shows the complete dashboard and is the safest starting point.
Notes
Prerequisites
No other setting must be turned on before this setting can be used – it can be configured independently at any time. However, some individual sections have their own requirements before they will appear at all, regardless of this setting:
- The Internship section requires the institution’s Internship feature to be enabled and configured.
- The Get Mobile App banner requires the mobile application feature to be included in the institution’s plan.
- The My Teachers, My Subjects, and Timetable sections each require the corresponding menu to be made available to students.
This setting can only hide sections that are already appearing for the reasons above – it is not a way to enable a feature the institution does not otherwise have.
Related Settings
- Hide Dashboard Page Elements for Teachers: (Dashboard Settings > Dashboard Settings Rights) – the equivalent setting for the Teacher dashboard.
- Hide Dashboard Page Elements for Parents: (Dashboard Settings > Dashboard Settings Rights) – the equivalent setting for the Parent dashboard.
- Hide Dashboard Page Elements for Secretary: (Dashboard Settings > Dashboard Settings Rights) – the equivalent setting for Secretary/Staff dashboards.
- Hide Dashboard Timeline Elements for Students: (Dashboard Settings > Dashboard Settings Rights) – a separate setting that controls which types of updates appear inside the Timeline section itself, rather than whether the Timeline section is shown at all.
- Light Mode settings: (Dashboard Settings > Light Mode Configuration) – when Light Mode is enabled for students, its own hidden-sections list is used instead of this setting for as long as Light Mode remains active for those students.
Assumptions
- The exact wording of the administration menu path shown above (Dashboard Settings > Dashboard Settings Rights) is based on the setting’s internal grouping; the on-screen menu wording in your version of the system may differ slightly.
- The note about faster dashboard loading when hiding sections is a reasonable inference from how the setting works and has not been separately measured or confirmed.
