Sandbox Courses: A Time-Saving Tool for Course Design and Collaboration

Decorative image of sandbox with a toy truck.

The University of Wisconsin – Green Bay uses Canvas as its Learning Management System (LMS). When instructors participate in professional development opportunities offered by the Center for the Advancement of Teaching and Learning (CATL), they often encounter information about creating a Canvas Sandbox course. But what exactly is a sandbox course? This blog post will define what a sandbox course is, what the differences are between a sandbox course and an instructional course, and some different use cases for sandbox courses that will help save you time in the long run.

What is a sandbox course?

A sandbox course is an empty Canvas course shell that can be used for a wide variety of purposes. These courses are not linked to the UWGB course registrar the way instructional courses are. Therefore, Sandbox courses can be used as a testing field or playground within the Canvas environment. Sandbox courses can be used by instructors as a tool to engage with Canvas content and teaching materials with other faculty or staff.

How is a sandbox course different from an instructional course?

  • Sandbox course: A sandbox course can be manually created at any time. These courses are not linked to a specific term within Canvas and do not have term start or end dates. Sandbox courses are not linked to the Registrar or SIS, so they do not have automatic enrollments and do not have any students.
  • Instructional course: An instructional course is created 75 days before the start date of the course as it is listed in the Schedule of Classes. These courses are linked to the UWGB student information system (SIS) which automatically enrolls students. This same system also automatically updates student enrollments as students add and drop courses at the beginning of a term to keep your course enrollments up to date. Both the instructor and students within a Canvas instructional course are added with SIS system sync. Therefore, the only Teachers within an instructional course are those listed as an instructor of record by the Registrar’s Office and only students who officially enroll in a course are added to an instructional course shell.

What are the limitations and benefits of a sandbox course?

Sandbox courses do not have the option to add someone to the course as a “Student.” This is a setting enforced by the University of Wisconsin System. Instructors can, however, utilize the “Student View” option in Canvas to view content in their Sandbox courses as a student would see it. To do so, any modules and content of interest must be published.

Canvas sandbox courses also allow for multiple individuals to have the role of “Teacher” at the same time. As sandbox courses are not linked to the SIS system, these roles can be granted by anyone within the course who has the role of “Teacher”. This allows for multiple instructors to contribute collaboratively to learning materials and activities to a course, or to allow instructors to share content with each other without worry that students will have access to those resources.

How can you utilize a sandbox course (instructors and staff)?

  • Sharing course content with other instructors or staff members while being mindful of FERPA. This is the safest way to share course content between instructors.
  • Preemptively building out your course content prior to the creation of your Instructional Canvas courses (these show up 75 days before the listed course start date). Content built in a sandbox course prior to the creation of an instructional course can be moved into the live instructional course using the Canvas Course Import tool.
  • Make “live” revisions to course content during an active teaching term without impacting the instructional course your students are engaging in. The best way to do this is to build a sandbox course and then copy the course content from your instructional course into the sandbox course. Then you can make reflective edits to that content in the sandbox course without impacting the activities that students have engaged with.
  • Collaborative course design and course building with a co-instructor or designers.
  • Creation of departmental or program trainings for instructors, staff, graduate students, and/or student employees. If you would like to create a course shell for training and development purposes and need to add users with the “Student” role, please reach out to dle@uwgb.edu and a Canvas admin can copy your sandbox into a course shell that supports the Student role.
  • Testing and experimenting to build new activities or assessments using different integrations (LTIs) such as PlayPosit and Hypothesis that are available within in the UWGB Canvas instance.

How do I create a sandbox course?

To create a Canvas sandbox course, you can follow the directions listed in this UWGB Knowledge Base article. There are, however, a few caveats for the creation of a sandbox course in the UWGB instance of Canvas. These conditions are listed below:

Global Navigation how to create a Sandbox

 

  • You must be enrolled in at least one existing Canvas course as a Teacher. If you are not enrolled in any Canvas courses as a Teacher yet, you can email DLE@uwgb.edu to have a Canvas admin create a sandbox for you.
  • You must access the Sandbox course creation tool, located under the Help menu within the Canvas Global Navigation Menu, from the University of Wisconsin – Green Bay instance website (https://uwgby.instructure.com).

 

Session Recording: “Getting Starting with Canvas: Building Your First Module” (Aug. 25, 2023)

Session Description

New to Canvas and not sure where to start? In this one-hour workshop, we will walk you through the essentials for building your first module! Learn about the features you might need to prepare your class including pages, assignments, discussions, and quizzes.

A colorful, geometric, and somewhat abstract illustration featuring buildings and streets covered with arrows, numbers, and the text "AI"

Generative AI and Assessments Workshop (June 28, July 18, Aug. 8, & Aug. 30, 2023)

Please join CATL for a virtual summer workshop focused on creating assessments in the age of generative AI (e.g., ChatGPT)! CATL facilitators will work with instructors to review their learning objectives, discuss the implications of emerging AI products, and brainstorm creative, high-quality, aligned, and feasible strategies for adapting course materials and assessments.

To participate in this virtual workshop, CATL asks that instructors bring a course syllabus with learning outcomes, ideas for at least two assessments for that course, and a willingness to engage in a reflective process that includes thinking about how generative AI technologies might impact those course materials. This workshop, “Generative AI and Assessments,” will occur three times throughout the summer months with more offerings to come in the fall. While registration is not required to attend, we encourage you to register today to receive a calendar reminder for the timeslot that works best for you!

Workshop Dates and Times:

All sessions are fully virtual and will meet via Microsoft Teams. Each workshop will be the same so please only sign up for one timeslot.

If you need accommodation for this virtual event, please contact CATL at CATL@uwgb.edu.

Register

 

10 Dos and Don’ts of Digital Accessibility

Accessibility involves designing materials so that as many people as possible can engage with them, regardless of users’ physical or cognitive abilities. Meeting baseline accessibility standards is key to inclusive course design, and the digital age has made it faster and easier than ever to create accessible materials. Small changes to a document, like using a clear font and appropriately-sized text, can significantly improve the user experience. To get you started, we have assembled a list of some critical “dos and don’ts” of digital accessibility, along with guides from Microsoft Word, Microsoft PowerPoint, and Canvas for each category.

Contents

Text Styles

Screenshot of black text displayed on a white background that reads, ‘Your video submission must be in MP4 format.’ The words ‘MP4 format’ are emphasized in red text font and yellow highlight.

Don’t… ❌

Use underlining, highlighting, or text color alone to denote emphasis or create meaning.

Screenshot of black text on a white background that reads, Important: Your video submission must be in MP4 format. The words Important and MP4 format are emphasized in bold.

Do… ✅

Use bold or italic styling sparingly to emphasize words or short phrases within the body of a text. To call attention to an entire sentence or section, consider writing “Important” before the content.

Use underlining only for hyperlinks to assist people who are color blind in differentiating them from regular text. Similarly, avoid using text color and highlighting alone for emphasis as they may be challenging to distinguish. Some screen readers do not announce bold or italicized text, so refrain from using text styles alone to create meaning.

Headings & Document Structure

Image containing two screenshots. The first screenshot shows a document with the word ‘Purpose’ emphasized in blue and bolded text. Below ‘Purpose’ is plain black text that reads, ‘In this activity, you will learn about.’ The document ends with the word ‘Task’ also emphasized in blue and bolded text. The second screenshot displays the text style pane in Microsoft Word. It indicates that the text in the screenshot is formatted with the ‘Normal’ text style.

Don’t… ❌

Create headings by manually adjusting text sizes, styles, or colors.

Image containing two screenshots from Microsoft Word. The first screenshot shows a document with the word ‘Purpose’ using the built-in Heading 2 style option. Below ‘Purpose’ is plain black text that reads, ‘In this activity, you will learn about.’ The document ends with the word ‘Task’ also using the Heading 2 style option. The second screenshot, positioned below the first, displays the Heading style panel in Microsoft Word.

Do… ✅

Use built-in heading styles in Word and the Canvas Rich Content Editor to organize content hierarchy. In PowerPoint, make sure to use an accessible template, add a title to every slide, and double-check slide reading order.

The built-in heading styles in these applications add special HTML code that makes it easier for people who use assistive tools to navigate a document.

Screenshot of a hyperlink formatted as a raw web URL, shown in blue underlined text. Below the URL, there is another hyperlink formatted in blue underlined text that reads ‘Click Here’.

Don’t… ❌

Use messy URLs or hyperlinks that do not make sense without context.

Screenshot of a hyperlink formatted in blue underlined text that reads ‘Spring 2023 TEG Call’. Below the text, there is another hyperlink formatted in blue underlined text that reads ‘uwgb.edu/catl’.

Do… ✅

Create concise hyperlinks with text that identifies or describes the link in a self-contained way.

Providing meaningful links helps people understand what to expect when they click the link. It also makes it easier for users who rely on assistive technology to navigate between links.

Images

A screenshot showing an image of the Cofrin Library in the Canvas RCE (Rich Content Editor). A text box below the image displays the Canvas HTML editor view of the Cofrin Library image with no descriptive alt text. The image file name consisting of numbers is used as the alt text, and it is underlined in red to indicate that it is not a sufficient description.

Don’t… ❌

Use an image alone to provide information.

A screenshot of the Canvas RCE. On the left is an image of the Cofrin Library. To the right is the Image Options panel in the Canvas RCE, including a field for alt text. Below that is a screenshot of the Canvas HTML editor view. The alt text for the image is underlined in red and reads 'UW-Green Bay Cofrin Library Centered amongst snow surrounded by snow covered treetops.'

Do… ✅

Add alt text or captions to describe images that convey information in Word, PowerPoint, and Canvas. Mark other images as “decorative” so they are ignored by screen readers.

Providing alt text or a caption helps people with low or no vision understand images.

Audio & Video

Screenshot displaying text that reads ‘Video without CC and Transcript.’ Below the text is a video titled ‘The Kiss by Gustav Klimt: Great Art Explained.’ The video does not display an option to turn on closed captioning.

Don’t… ❌

Share audio or video without closed captioning or another text alternative.

Image containing two screenshots side by side. The first screenshot displays text that reads ‘Video with CC and transcript.’ Below the text is a video titled ‘The Kiss by Gustav Klimt: Great Art Explained’ with a red circle positioned over the closed captioning button on the video player. Below the video is a transcription box. The second screenshot on the right displays the Kaltura My Media options, with the ‘Captions & Enrich’ option highlighted in grey. This option allows users to edit the auto-generated captions in Kaltura My Media.

Do… ✅

Upload your recordings into Kaltura (My Media) for automatic captions or search for media that is captioned. For spoken audio that does not have a visual component, such as a podcast stream, provide a transcript instead.

Captions and transcripts allow people with limited or no hearing to engage with audio and video media, plus they benefit those with other access barriers. Users can also benefit from having a searchable transcript.

Lists

Screenshot of the Canvas Rich Content Editor (RCE) displaying an unformatted numbered list titled ‘List with No Formatting.’ The list contains the items ‘1. Red, 2. Blue, 3. Yellow’ without proper formatting. A gray box outlines the HTML editor view of the Canvas RCE, showing the use of heading 3 tags for the page title and paragraph tags for the list of colors.

Don’t… ❌

Manually type numbers or bullets to create lists.

Screenshot of the Canvas Rich Content Editor (RCE) displaying a properly formatted numbered list titled ‘List with Formatting.’ The list contains the items ‘1. Red, 2. Blue, 3. Yellow’ with proper formatting. An inset screenshot shows the HTML editor view of the Canvas RCE, including the tags which give the list proper formatting. Another inset screenshot displays the list formatting options available in the 'more' menu of the RCE toolbar, which is circled in red.

Do… ✅

Use the bullet and numbering buttons in the toolbars of Word, PowerPoint, and the Canvas Rich Content Editor.

The built-in list formatting options in these applications add special HTML code that makes it easier for people who use assistive technologies to navigate a document.

Tables

An image containing three screenshots. The first screenshot shows a table in the Canvas RCE. The text above the table reads ‘Table without a Header Row/Column and Caption.’ The table contains syllabus assignments with weeks labeled 1-2 in the right columns, and weekdays Monday and Wednesday in the first row of the table. The second screenshot displays a table in the Canvas RCE. The text above the table reads ‘Table Used for Formatting Non-Tabular Content.’ It seems that this table is intended for formatting purposes and not for displaying tabular data. The third screenshot, positioned below the first two, presents the HTML editor view of the Canvas RCE. The code illustrates a table that lacks a caption and header row/column.

Don’t… ❌

Subdivide and merge cells, omit captions and row/column headers, or use tables as a “hack” for formatting content.

A screenshot depicting a properly formatted table in the Canvas RCE. The table is captioned ‘Weekly Course Schedule,’ with the header row displaying the weekdays Monday and Wednesday, while the header column includes weeks 1-3. A text box below the image displays the HTML editor view of the Canvas RCE. The words 'caption' and 'col' are underlined in the editor, indicating how a table with a caption and header columns are coded.

Do… ✅

Use tables to present data in rows and columns with a logical layout. Use the built-in tools in Word and the accessibility checker in the Canvas Rich Content Editor to include a caption and set a header row and/or header column for data tables. Avoid using tables in PowerPoint if possible, but if you do, follow these guidelines.

Adding a caption and setting a header row/column with the built-in formatting options adds special HTML code that helps users who rely on assistive technology understand and navigate the table. Screen readers may struggle to interpret the layout and hierarchy of the information presented when tables are used to format content other than data. Subdivided and merged cells also pose challenges for users that navigate with a keyboard or rely on screen readers.

Charts & Graphs

Screenshot of a pie graph titled Sales created in Microsoft Word. The pie graph consists of four slices of different colors, with blue being the largest, followed by orange, gray, and yellow. The legend positioned below the pie graph indicates the blue represents the 1st quarter, orange represents the 2nd quarter, gray represents the 3rd quarter, and yellow represents the 4th quarter.

Don’t… ❌

Use color alone to create meaning in charts and graphs.

An image containing two screenshots. The first displays a pie chart titled 'Sales' created in Microsoft Word. The Chart Elements settings are displayed with the boxes for title, data labels, and legend all checked. The second screenshot, positioned on the right, displays the Format Data Labels panel, which presents additional label options. A text box below reads 'Labeling chart and graph element settings in MS Word.'

Do… ✅

Directly label elements in charts and graphs and/or use shapes or patterns to differentiate elements.

People who are color blind or who have low vision may have trouble differentiating colors.

Scanned Documents

Screenshot of a scanned image of a book page in Adobe Acrobat. A solid blue box overlays a paragraph of text in the image, indicating that each word in the book is not scannable. Below the image, there is a text box that reads “Scanned image without a searchable text.”

Don’t… ❌

Use photos or scans of text without checking for accessibility.

Screenshot of a scanned image of a book page in Adobe Acrobat. Blue highlight overlays a paragraph showing each word is scannable. Below the image, there is a text box that reads 'PDF with searchable text done through the Scan & OCR function in Adobe Acrobat.'

Do… ✅

Find an alternative accessible resource or use the optical character recognition (OCR) tools in Adobe Acrobat to turn a scan into an accessible PDF with selectable text and a logical reading order.

Digital scans of physical texts are encoded like images and are not readable by most screen readers. OCR converts a scanned document into a format that allows people who use assistive technologies to engage with the text, plus it benefits all users by making the document searchable.

Accessibility Checkers

Screenshot of the Canvas RCE displaying some sample headings and text, including text that is light gray and very difficult to read. Under the RCE box, there is a red circle around the accessibility checker indicator, which notifies the editor that there are three accessibility issues within the page.

Don’t… ❌

Ignore the accessibility checker tools in Word, PowerPoint, and Canvas.

Screenshot of the Canvas RCE with the Accessibility Checker panel on the right-hand side. The panel highlights three accessibility issues and provides recommendations for how to fix them. The first issue identified in the panel is the insufficient color contrast ratio for light gray text against a white background.

Do… ✅

Use the accessibility checker tools in Word, PowerPoint, and Canvas to scan for and repair common issues – including many of the issues described in this resource – before exporting, publishing, or sharing materials. For Canvas, you can also use the UDOIT accessibility checker to scan your whole course.

Using built-in accessibility checker tools can help ensure that your course materials meet accessibility standards.

Resources by Application

For accessibility resources specific to Word, PowerPoint, and Canvas, respectively, please see the guides and tip sheets below:

Need Help?

This resource is meant to be a starting point for best practices in digital accessibility, but if you have questions beyond the scope of this guide, we welcome you to reach out to CATL! Send us an email at CATL@uwgb.edu or fill out our consultation request form to discuss digital accessibility in your own courses.

Exams, Alternative Assessments, and the Question of Proctoring

As we dig into the second half of the spring semester, instructors may now be looking at final assessments for the end of the term. During this time, instructors have many different options when they plan out and assign assessments. In this blog post, we’ll be looking at some alternative options for more traditional proctored exams which instructors can incorporate into their courses. 

The purpose of this post isn’t to say that instructors cannot offer traditional quizzes or tests within their courses. Far from it, in fact. Instead, we are offering an alternative to help avoid over-use of quizzes and exams in line with Palloff and Pratt (2013) where the authors state that, “instructors shouldn’t completely avoid the use of tests and quizzes. These assessments can be appropriate but require instructors to be mindful about when and where they use them.” In this vein, below are several suggestions on how to still incorporate quizzes and exams within a course using certain formats or settings within Canvas that create impactful assessments without a reliance on proctoring.  

Alternatives to Proctoring Traditional Exams: Canvas Settings 

For quizzes and tests which contain multiple choice or other auto-graded questions in Canvas, there are several settings instructors can enable to help encourage academic integrity. First, within the settings of a Canvas Classic Quiz, instructors can set answers to be shuffled between quizzes so that each student sees the answer choices in a different order. Selecting Quiz due dates and setting a time limit on a quiz where students must complete the assessment within the given time are also settings which might be of interest. These options are all in the Classic Quiz settings within Canvas.  

Canvas Classic Quizzes Settings showing shuffle questions, time limit, and quiz attempt settings.

You can also create Classic Quiz question banks and then use question groups to pull questions from one or more question banks. With a question group, you can pull all questions from a bank or set a specific number of questions from the question bank to be randomly selected for the question group. Using a question group to randomize questions within a Canvas Quiz can help deter academic dishonesty.  

Another option in Canvas is to have multiple versions of the same quiz, similar to how you might have a test form A, B, and C, for a paper test in a face-to-face course. Use Canvas to set up multiple versions of an exam or quiz, put students into groups, and then assign each group a different version of the assessment. The directions here discuss assigning an individual student to a quiz; however, you can follow the same directions to assign a quiz to a student group instead.  

Alternatives to Proctoring Traditional Exams: Test Formatting 

Besides selecting specific quiz settings in Canvas which can help to discourage academic dishonesty, instructors can also adjust the format of a quiz or test. One option is to allow students to use open notes combined with a specific time limit while taking a quiz or test. Alternatively, the use of open notes can help prioritize question types such as short-answer or essay questions. These question types focus more on application and tend to encourage more honest and original answers from students than multiple-choice and other auto-graded question types. For example, you might have students conduct an analysis of a case study using key concepts introduced in class or explaining how to solve a specific equation. Often, asking students to explain something from their point of view or discuss how they would approach an example case study are questions that are harder to look up in notes or online.  

Another test format you might consider is to ask students to complete an oral exam. UWGB’s own Dr. Amy Kabrhel and Dr. James Kabrhel recently created a blog post discussing their use of oral exams in place of traditional exams for use in virtual classrooms and other remote learning modalities. 

Alternative Assessments Beyond Traditional Exams

For instructors who may wish to incorporate formative or summative assessments that do not follow a quiz or exam structure, we have a summary of a few alternative options. Popular suggestions for such assessments tend to promote group work, peer review, or other collaborative endeavors. Assessments incorporating such activities tend to foster higher order thinking in students and encourage metacognition, personal reflection on learning, and stimulate more active learning.  

The University of North Dakota Teaching Transformation and Development Academy (TTaDA)  and the Charlotte University Center for Teaching and Learning provide some concrete suggestions of specific types of skills-based assessments that transcend proctoring. Some highlights include portfolios where students select examples of their work over the duration of the course to revisit, analyze, and update to submit for a final assessment. This provides students with the opportunity to portray an increased understanding of course materials, as well as showcase specific pieces of work they found interesting or are proud of.  

Another option instead of assigning quizzes and tests is to allow students to create detailed “study guides” for a hypothetical quiz or test, or questions they believe should be used on a quiz or exam based off the materials covered in class. These activities allow students to show how well they understand the topics and concepts covered in class, while also providing instructors with informal feedback about what information students are identifying as important.  

A different suggestion for alternative assessments in STEM courses in particular came from UND TTaDA where they encourage the use of virtual labs. They highlight an open education resource (OER) created by Merlot University showcasing a collection of virtual labs focused on science, engineering, mathematics, and technology disciplines.  

A final tool instructors can use to look at potential alternative assessments is an interactive Reimagine Assessments resource developed by Emory University’s Center for Faculty Development and Excellence. This tool lets instructors see example activities for alternative assessments based on 4 different assessment goals: content mastery, skill development, analysis, and theory. 

Each of these examples have one common theme, and that is that assessments, either traditional quizzes and tests or alternative assessments, should be designed to not only assess a student’s comfort and mastery of specific knowledge covered within a course, but should also aim to help students develop and hone a variety of professional skills. These skills should both aid students within the classroom and also be applicable in the world beyond higher education. Such skills can include but are not limited to information management, project management, time management, individual and group oral presentation skills, collaboration skills, and the potential to practice various media production and editing skills.  

Assessment Wrap Up

The benefits of being very deliberate in the form and function of an assessment are twofold. First, utilizing different Canvas settings, quiz and test formats, or alternative assessment strategies decreases the dependence of instructors on proctoring. In recent years, proctoring software has become a more controversial topic within higher ed, and the ability to utilize in-person proctoring is equally complicated by various factors, the least of which was the recent COVID pandemic. The second benefit is that reassessing and being critical about when, how, and in what form to present formative and summative assessments can help encourage academic honesty amongst students by not only gauging the level of mastery students have reached throughout a course, but also helping students to develop a skill tool set they can use going forward in higher ed and in future careers. 

If you have any questions or ideas about quizzes, tests, or alternative assessments, please reach out to CATL and schedule a consultation.