Creating a Sandbox Shell & Course Import
Instructors are now able to create your own Sandbox shells from your Canvas Dashboard. This means you no longer need to submit a request form to acquire a Sandbox shell.
Benefits of using Sandbox shells
- As you teach your current courses, you can work in a Sandbox shell to make changes to your course(s) as you notice things that need to be changed. This will streamline the course prep for the next semester!
- Working in a Sandbox provides a risk-free space to play around with different Canvas features, as there are no students in the course
- You can add faculty to a Sandbox if you'd like to share your great work with your colleagues. This is especially helpful for new faculty hires, faculty who are new to teaching online, or faculty teaching a new course prep
- You can easily copy some or all of the content into next semester's course that you'll be teaching!
Naming Conventions
When creating your own Canvas sandbox, please carefully consider the name you choose. Here are some recommendations.
Development Course(s) Naming Suggestions
- Dept-Cours-Development-LastName
- Engl-120-Development-Brown
Resource Course(s) Naming Suggestions
- CC-Name of Project
- CC-Professional Development
- CC-Math Department
Create your own Canvas shell
Video Demonstration:
Canvas Guide
Here is a Canvas guide Links to an external site. demonstrating how to create a new Sandbox shell.
Copy the sandbox content to another teaching shell
Here is a video demonstrating all the Canvas import options:
Here are some additional guides:
Important Reminders
- Sandbox shells are for course development purposes only. Therefore, students should never be added to these shells.
- Sandboxes are NOT the courses you will be teaching each semester, so always remember to copy the content over when you are ready to publish your live teaching shell.