There are many cases in which it is useful to restrict access to material in Moodle.  For example: sharing information with graders or making extended-time versions of quizzes or assignments.

The process to make a resource or activity available to only certain members of a course in Moodle is a little convoluted but works well once set up.   

To limit access, you need to create a grouping.  A grouping is a group of groups.  The easiest way to set up restricted access is to create a single group containing the members course that should be able to access the material.  Then create a grouping which contains the group you create.  You can then set the resource or activity to be visible to the grouping you created.  Confused?  So was I, but see the step-by-step directions below and you should be okay.  Email help@swarthmore.edu if you need assistance.  

1.  First, create a group containing the members of course that should have access to the item.

Go to the Settings block → Course administration → Users → Groups

Create a new group and give it a descriptive name.  None of the other information is required.  Click the "Save changes" button.  

You should now see your group in the groups listing.  Click on the group name, then on the "Add/remove users" button (be patient – it might take a little while to load the uses).  Find users to add and click the "Add" button to add them to the group.  When you have added the group members, click on the "Back to groups" button.

2.  Now create the grouping containing the group you created in step 1.

Click on the "Groupings tab and create a grouping.  Use a unique name.  If you called your original group "group1" something like "group1_grouping" is fine.  Save the changes.  

Add your group to the grouping by clicking on the "group" icon (the last icon in the edit column for the grouping) and click the "Back to groupings" button.  Verify that the grouping now contains your group.

3.  Create or update the resource or activity you want to limit access to.

Under the "Common Module Settings" click on the "Show Advanced" button.

Check the "Available for group members only" button and select the grouping you created from the "Grouping" pull down menu above.

Save changes.  When you return to the course main page you will see the grouping name in parentheses next to the title of the item.  This indicates that the item is only visible to that grouping.

Whew!  Not simple, but this is the way to limit access to resources and activities.

Other notes

• If you switch your role to student (or any other role), the item will still show up even if you haven't included any students in the grouping.  This is because you are viewing the course as a "generic student".