Come Play in the Carmen Sandbox!

We are starting on what is – to me – the exciting part of a Carmen update: introducing the changes to faculty, staff, and students who actually use the system!  This update will bring a better experience on iPads and other small computers.  You’ll also see big changes in the Content area, all the menus and navigation bars, User Progress, and more!  Remember, the update is scheduled for May 3-5, just after the end of Spring semester.

As noted on last Thursday’s post, you can attend a preview session.  Click back to that post to see all the sessions and choose one to register for.

You can also explore the changes on your own.

We have a “sandbox” environment of Carmen, already updated, ready for you to use.

• Go to http://go.osu.edu/carmensandbox (click through the temporary certificate notice).
• Login with your regular OSU username and password.
• Explore the updated tools using your own courses.

The sandbox is based on a copy of Carmen from early October 2012.  You won’t see anything you’ve added since then, and Spring 2013 courses aren’t there at all.  But you can make any changes you want, knowing they’ll have no impact!

This is a sandbox, so a couple of playground etiquette rules apply.

• We –the Carmen team – are playing in the sandbox, too!  We’ll try not to disrupt your work, but:
  • don’t be surprised if colors, navigation, layouts and other elements change without notice.
  •  we many need to take the sandbox offline – probably briefly but without advance warning – while we test behind-the-scenes functions.

• Sand is not a good medium for permanent construction!
  • if you end up building content modules or other material that you want to keep, use Copy / Export / Import to export your work so you can upload it into a course in the regular Carmen system.
  • if you encounter something really strange, don’t assume it will still be there when the regular Carmen system is updated.  Send us a note at carmen@osu.edu describing what happened so we can resolve problems now.  Make sure to specify that you were in the sandbox!
  • if you see something you really like, let us know at carmen@osu.edu.  We’d like to know what features to highlight.

• Try new ideas and new tools!  Depending on how you regularly use Carmen, you might not see all the new features.
  • find a course you had used and see how things changed when they were updated in place.  If you customized your navbar or homepage, some of the changes will be less visible. So…,
  • find a course you didn’t use and see what’s new.  The new layouts and navbars will show up automatically in any course still using the default settings.

• Sharing is a good idea!  You’ll get more out of the experience if you explore with a friend.
  • in one the courses you’re playing in, enroll a colleague in the Student role.  Your colleague should enroll you as a Student in her course.  Make sure the courses you’re playing in are active.
  • entering someone else’s course as a student is a great way to get new ideas and new perspectives, even when we’re not planning an update.

Next week: a more detailed guide about what’s changing.  We’re gathering some screenshots to help illustrate things!