Hello,
There are actually multiple ways to do this within Performance Matters and in our District, we use quite a few depending on when the course is being created.
Option 1 - The Learning Catalog that displays to the learner is self-pruning and will not display Sections which are not actively allowing registration. On the Section level, when entering your date information, you can set End of Registration date to a date in the past. The course can then still go through your approval work flow and then would give roster access to the Instructor only.
So for a course with a section Starting on 2/15/21 and Ending on 5/21/21, if you enter a End of Registration Date 2/1/21 the course will not be visible in the catalog giving the instructor the complete ability to control who is registered for the Section
Option 2 - When Creating a Course, remove all Audiences via Set Locations. Because this is a Course Setting (which cannot be required by the system) the course can go through approval but will never release to the catalog, giving the instructor complete control of the roster. We use this for New Teacher Induction Courses where we want to control registration.
When to use Option 1 over 2? Option 1 when you might be offering the course again where you will not restrict the section. Option 2 when you know the course will never have open registration.
Option 3 - If you know the list of users you want to have access (let's say there's a group of 20 people who should be the only people to see the courses) but they do not share the same demographic, create a Staff Group. Once you have added the list of people who can have access to the course, be sure to visit the second tab Details and Permissions and check the box to allow for course targeting. Then when creating the course, you can use the Set Restricted Demographic and enable the Staff Group you created.
We use Option 3 quite a bit for all types of training for Teaching Partners, Principals, Title IX designations, etc.
Hope that helps and best of luck!
