The Restrictions tab allows you to create conditions for the availability and/or visibility of discussion forums in the following ways:

• Release Conditions are used to determine when the forum is available (for example: students can only see the forum if they have achieved a score of 80% or higher on a certain quiz. You can add multiple release conditions to a single forum).
• Group and Section Restrictions are used to determine to whom the forum is available (for example: only students form Tutorialgroup 1 are able to see the forum).

• Go to Activities in the navbar of your course.
• Click on Discussions; you will now see the discussions homepage.
• Click on arrow next to the forum to which you want to add restrictions.
• Click on Edit Forum.

1. Click Restrictions (second tab).
2. Check the Hide from Users box to make the forum invisible to students.
3. Under Availability you can choose the following options under Has Start Date:
   • Visible with access restricted before start: The forum is visible to students before the start date, but they do not have access.
   • Visible with submission restricted before start date: The forum is visible to students before the start date and they have access, but they cannot start threads or reply.
   • Hidden before start: The forum is not visible to students before the start date.
4. Under Availability you can choose the following options under Has End Date: 
   • Visible with access restricted after end: The forum is visible to students after the end date, but they do not have access.
   • Visible with submission restricted after end: The forum is visible to students after the end date and they have access, but they cannot start threads or reply.
   • Hidden after end:  The forum is not visible to students after the end date.
5. Select Display in Calendar if you want these dates to appear in the calendar of students

1. Under Release Conditions you can attach conditions when the forum will be available:
   • Click on Attach Existing to add an existing release condition:
     • Select the condition you want to add.
     • Click Add.
   • Click on Create and Attach to add a new release condition:
     • Select the condition you want to add.
     • Click Create.
2. The dropdown menu allows you to choose whether students have to fulfill only one (Any condition must be met) or all (All conditions must be met) of the attached release conditions to gain access to the forum.
3. Under Group and Section Restrictions you can attach conditions for whom the forum will be available:
   • Check the Restrict this forum to the following groups and sections box to restrict access to this forum to certain groups.
   • Click Add Groups and Sections and select the specific group or section. Click on Add.
4. Click Save and Close to return to the discussions homepage or Save and Add Topic to create a topic.