Overview

The ‘Hide Teacher’s Colleagues’ setting controls whether a Teacher can see the list of colleague Teachers who share responsibility for the same Subject (Course/Module). This includes teachers who are assigned to teach a specific Group (class) of that Subject, as well as teachers who supervise or coordinate it.

This setting is found under: Settings > Core Settings > Teacher Portal Rights > Basic Settings.

Note: Teacher’ is the default Classter term for this role. Depending on your institution’s configuration, this may be displayed instead as ‘Lecturer’, ‘Instructor’, ‘Professor’ or ‘Faculty’. In Higher Education mode this term is commonly shown as ‘Lecturer’.

What This Setting Does

This is an on/off (checkbox) setting. By default, it is switched OFF.

• When OFF (default): a Teacher who opens one of their own Subjects can view a list of colleague Teachers connected to that same Subject – both the Teachers directly assigned to teach it, and any Teachers with a supervising role over it.
• When ON: the colleague list is hidden from Teachers. A Teacher opening the same Subject will no longer be able to see or open the list of colleague Teachers for that Subject.
• The setting only affects the Teacher role. Administrators, Registrars, and other back-office staff members always keep full access to the colleague list, regardless of this setting.
• The setting only affects the Teachers list. The Students list on the same screen is never affected by this setting.
• Other areas of the system – such as the timetable, substitute-teacher assignment, the gradebook, attendance, and messaging/communication teacher-selection lists – are not affected by this setting.

Where It Is Used

Configuration location: Settings > Core Settings > Teacher Portal Rights > Basic Settings, as the checkbox ‘Hide Teacher’s Colleagues’.

Where it takes effect: In the Subject/Course detail page (reached from ‘My Courses’), on the Roster tab. Normally this tab shows two buttons, ‘Students’ and ‘Teachers’. Clicking ‘Teachers’ opens the list of colleague Teachers for that Subject. When this setting is enabled, the ‘Teachers’ button is removed for Teachers, so they can no longer open that list. Based on the setting’s own description, the same restriction is also intended to apply in the equivalent screen of the Teacher mobile application.

When it affects users: Immediately, every time a Teacher opens a Subject and looks at its Roster tab. It is not something a Teacher needs to log out and back in for; it is not limited to a single Subject or a single day – it applies consistently, for as long as the setting stays enabled.

This setting applies company-wide: once enabled, it hides the colleague list for all Teachers across the institution. It cannot be turned on for some Teachers or Subjects and off for others.

Business Logic / Behavior

Business purpose: this setting gives an institution control over how much visibility Teachers have into who else is involved in teaching or supervising a shared Subject. It is primarily a staff-privacy and information-control setting.

Confirmed behavior

• The colleague list that this setting hides is made up of two groups: ‘Enrolled Teachers’ (colleagues directly assigned to teach a Group/class of that Subject) and ‘Supervisors’ (colleagues with a coordinating or supervising role over that Subject).
• Each colleague normally appears as a small profile card showing their photo, full name, job role, and – for Enrolled Teachers – the Group(s) they teach, or – for Supervisors – their supervision role.
• Whether a colleague’s phone number and/or email address also appear on that card is controlled by a separate, related setting (see Section 7 – Notes).
• The restriction is enforced for the Teacher role only; it does not change what Administrators or Secretaries can see on the same page.

Business rules

• Rule 1: If this setting is enabled, the entire colleague list (Enrolled Teachers and Supervisors together) is hidden from Teachers – it is not possible to hide only one of the two groups.
• Rule 2: The Students roster on the same page is never affected – only the Teachers/colleagues list is controlled by this setting.
• Rule 3: This setting does not remove a Teacher’s own ability to teach or manage their Subject – it only removes their visibility into who their colleagues are on that Subject.
• Rule 4: The setting works together with the related contact-visibility setting described in Section 7: that related setting only has an effect when this setting is OFF and the colleague list is actually visible.

Example(s)

Example 1 – Setting Disabled (default behavior)

Riverside Academy keeps this setting turned off. Ms. Adams teaches Mathematics for Grade 8. She opens her ‘Mathematics – Grade 8’ Subject, goes to the Roster tab, and clicks ‘Teachers’. She sees a list of colleagues, for example ‘Mr. Carter’ listed under Enrolled Teachers with the tag ‘Grade 8A’, and ‘Dr. Lewis’ listed under Supervisors with the tag ‘Subject Coordinator’. Depending on the related contact-visibility setting, she may also see their phone number or email address.

Example 2 – Setting Enabled

Northfield International School enables this setting to protect staff privacy. Mr. Carter, a Teacher, opens his ‘Biology – Grade 10’ Subject and goes to the Roster tab. He now only sees a ‘Students’ button; the ‘Teachers’ button that used to show his colleagues is no longer there, so he cannot see who else teaches or supervises that Subject. Meanwhile, the school’s registrar, Mrs. Bianchi, opens the same Subject page and still sees the full colleague list, because the setting only restricts the Teacher role.

When to Use

When to Enable

• Your institution has a strict staff-privacy or data-protection policy and prefers that Teachers do not browse a directory of colleague Teachers or their contact details.
• You want to limit teacher-to-teacher visibility for internal governance or confidentiality reasons.
• Hiding contact details alone (through the related setting) is not enough, and you want to hide the entire colleague list, not just phone/email information.

When to Disable (default)

• You want Teachers who share a Subject to be able to identify and coordinate with one another (for example, co-teachers agreeing on lesson plans, or contacting the Subject supervisor).
• Your institution values transparency and collaboration between teaching staff over strict privacy restrictions on this particular list.
• You have no specific privacy requirement that would justify hiding this information from Teachers.

Notes

• Default value: OFF (colleague list visible to Teachers).
• Scope: this is a company-wide setting; it applies to all Teachers at the institution and cannot be configured per Teacher or per Subject.
• No other setting must be configured first for this setting to work; it functions independently.

Related settings

Teacher can see colleague’s phone and email (Settings > Core Settings > Teacher Portal Rights > Basic Settings – Teachers_Can_See_Colleagues_Phone_And_Email): controls whether a colleague’s phone number and/or email address are shown on their profile card within the colleague list. This setting only has a visible effect when ‘Hide Teacher’s Colleagues’ is OFF, since it does not apply if the colleague list itself is hidden.

K-12 vs Higher Education mode

There is no behavioral difference between K-12 mode and Higher Education mode (controlled by the Enable Configuration for Higher Education setting). This setting works identically in both modes. The only difference you may notice is terminology: in Higher Education mode, the word Teacher in the setting’s label and description may instead be displayed as ‘Lecturer’ (or your institution’s configured term for this role), while in K-12 mode it is typically displayed as Teacher.