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How to Hide the "Begin" or "Start Course" Button in Rise 360

Here’s how to hide the "Start Course" or "Begin" button in your Rise course, plus how Mighty can automate the CSS.

The Mighty teamMighty by Maestro
5 min read

Sometimes the default Rise 360 Start Course / Begin button is one element too many. If your cover page design already gives learners a clear path forward—or you’re matching a stakeholder’s very specific layout—you can hide that button with a small CSS update after publishing.

Mighty

Rise doesn’t currently give you a toggle to remove the Start Course or Begin button from the course cover page. But you can hide it in the published files using a CSS code snippet. Plus, with Mighty, you can keep that CSS with the course so you don’t have to repeat the file-editing step every time.

What you’re actually changing#

Rise publishes your course as a set of web files. When a learner launches the course from your LMS—or opens the web version—the course runs through an index.html file.

The trick is to add a small CSS rule inside that file’s head section. That CSS targets the Start Course / Begin button and sets its visibility to hidden.

That means the button is still part of the underlying page structure, but it is not visible to the learner.

Quick note: The source walkthrough refers to the specific CSS selector used for the Begin button. Use that selector in your own CSS rule, then set visibility: hidden;.

Option 1: Hide the button by editing the published files#

This is the manual route. It works whether you publish for web or LMS, but the folder structure looks a little different depending on which publishing option you choose.

  1. In Rise 360, publish your course. You can publish for Web or LMS.
  2. Download and open the published .zip file.
  3. If you published for LMS, open the scormcontent folder. If you published for web, you should see the course files directly, without that outer SCORM folder.
  4. Find the index.html file.
  5. Open index.html in a code editor.
    1. In the video, John uses Visual Studio Code, but you do not need anything fancy. A plain text editor works too, as long as it lets you edit and save the HTML file without changing the file extension.
  6. Find the head section.
    1. Look near the top of the file for the opening <head> tag and the closing </head> tag. Your CSS needs to go somewhere inside that section.
  7. Add your CSS rule inside the head tag.

The important part is that your rule targets the Rise Begin button selector and sets the visibility to hidden.

.cover__header-content-action-link {
    visibility: hidden;
}
/******/

In the walkthrough, the CSS is added directly in the head area before the closing </head> tag. The exact placement is flexible, as long as it is inside the head section and the syntax is valid. When you’ve done this, you can save the file and re-zip the course package if needed.

If you are uploading to an LMS, make sure your final package keeps the expected SCORM structure. The LMS still needs the same launch files and manifest files it received from Rise.

The next step is to open or upload the course and test it.

When the course runs, index.html loads your CSS. The Start Course / Begin button should no longer appear on the cover page.

The catch with the manual method#

The manual edit works, but there is one annoying limitation: every new publish creates fresh files.

So if you:

  • Fix a typo
  • Swap an image
  • Update quiz copy
  • Republish for LMS testing
  • Create a new stakeholder review version

…you need to remember to open the new export, find index.html, and add the CSS again.

That’s easy to forget, especially when you’re making final QA changes on a tight timeline. And because the Start Course button is on the cover page, stakeholders will usually notice right away if it comes back.

Option 2: Use Mighty to keep the CSS with the course#

If you use Mighty, you can avoid having to edit the exported index.html file every time.

Mighty lets you add custom code to your Rise course so the same CSS is included automatically when you publish. In the video, John shows the same visibility: hidden; approach added through Mighty instead of manually editing the final HTML file.

Here’s the practical workflow:

  1. Open your Rise course with Mighty enabled.
  2. Go to Mighty’s custom code area.
  3. Add the same CSS rule that hides the Begin button.
  4. Publish your Rise course.
  5. Open the exported zip file.
  6. Go to scormcontent if it’s an LMS export.
  7. Open the course and confirm the Begin button is hidden.

The end result is the same: the Start Course / Begin button is hidden with CSS. The difference is that Mighty keeps that CSS attached to your course build, so you don’t have to patch the index.html file after every publish.

If your team publishes frequent review versions, that little bit of automation can save a surprising amount of rework.

Another Mighty option: restyle the Begin button instead#

If you’d rather customize the Begin button so it works better with your design, Mighty can help with that too.

For example, you could:

  • Change the Begin button’s location on the cover page
  • Restyle the font color, size, and spacing
  • Adjust the corner radius or add a border

That is often the better choice when the button is still useful for orientation or accessibility, but the default Rise placement or styling isn’t quite right.

If the cover page already has a strong visual hierarchy and the button is redundant, hiding it may make sense. If the button is the clearest “start here” cue for learners, restyling it may be safer than removing it from view.

👉 Check out our catalog of Really Good Rise Courses to explore some examples of Begin buttons that have been imaginatively restyled using Mighty.

A quick accessibility and QA note#

Because this method hides a built-in course control visually, test the learner experience before you ship.

At minimum, check that:

  • Learners can still understand how to begin the course
  • The first lesson or next action is obvious on the cover page
  • Keyboard and screen reader behavior still makes sense for your audience
  • The course launches correctly in your LMS after repackaging
  • The button stays hidden after a fresh publish, especially if you used the manual method

Also remember that the CSS code hides the element from view but does not redesign the rest of the page for you. Review the cover page spacing and layout after applying the CSS so you’re not left with an awkward gap or a confusing first impression.

When to use each approach#

Use the manual index.html edit when you need a quick, one-off fix and you are comfortable touching published files.

Use Mighty’s custom code workflow when this is part of your course design system, brand treatment, or repeated publishing process. It gives you the same CSS result without the “did we remember to edit the zip?” moment.

And if the real issue is that the default button styling doesn’t match the course, try restyling the Begin button in Mighty before you remove it entirely.

Small cover-page details can have an outsized impact on how polished a Rise course feels. Hide the button when it’s truly in the way—or use Mighty to reshape it into something that fits your design better.

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