Back to Campus. Back to CarmenCanvas.

A new semester is approaching, and whether you are teaching in-person, online or hybrid, it’s time to review what’s new in the eLearning toolset at Ohio State. You may have already noticed the Carmen landing page got a facelift this summer, and the simpler design aligns with other services from the Office of the Chief Information Officer (OCIO) and the Office of Distance Education and eLearning (ODEE). Find out what else is new with Carmen, Zoom and Mediasite—and what hasn’t changed (like the key Carmen activities to focus on regardless of instructional mode). 

You and your students can also review the Start of Term Checklist to make sure you are all set for another great semester in CarmenCanvas. 

New Home for Keep Teaching Information  

The content developed for the Ohio State Keep Teaching website has moved to a more permanent home within the Teaching and Learning Resource Center. All information, including teaching strategies by instructional mode, tool-specific information and learning opportunities have now joined other teaching and learning resources from departments around the university.  

Syllabus Statements in Carmen  

A new menu item in each CarmenCanvas course highlights academic policies and sample syllabus statements. The Academic Policies link will direct you and your students to a webpage that lists policies that are typically found in the syllabus. Please make sure your students are aware of this feature, which will appear in all their courses. You can also copy and paste policies from the website directly into your syllabus.  

“Add Participants” Survey 

If you use the Add Participants feature on the Carmen landing page to manually add participants to your academic course, you will see a required survey before confirming your additions. You must select the reason you are adding participants to your course. If you are adding multiple participants for different reasons (such as a TA and a guest instructor), please add them one at a time. This new feature aids in data collection so we can improve our services.

Box-to-OneDrive Migration

Keep in mind that BuckeyeBox will retire at the end of 2021, and most colleges and departments have already migrated to OneDrive for their cloud storage needs. If you used the Box integration in your Carmen course, your students can still see the files after you’ve been migrated, but the files will no longer be available to you or your students after Box is retired. It is best to reconsider your file storage options so you can replace Box links in your course. 

Going forward, you can use the Office 365 integration in your courses to share files that are too large to store in Carmen. This integration can also be used to collaborate on Word, PowerPoint and Excel files within Carmen, and students can utilize this integration to submit Office 365 files for assignments. Remember that Ohio State and the Wexner Medical Center have different instances of Office 365. To use the Carmen integration, be sure you are logged into your university account.  

Even if you have not migrated to OneDrive yet, we strongly encourage all users to begin new projects in OneDrive in preparation for the retirement of BuckeyeBox. Those who create a new BuckeyeBox account (for example, students who want to collaborate with you) will not be granted any storage. Starting fresh in OneDrive will be the smoothest process for instructors and students alike.  

Student Annotation Assignments  

Canvas has added a new assignment type that allows students to annotate a file you have provided. This Annotation Assignment could be used for writing out equations, labeling diagrams, providing feedback on specific parts of a file or peer reviews. While this new assignment type opens up some unique possibilities, remember that you may need to offer students other more accessible options for completing the same assignment. Learn more about the Annotation Assignment in the Canvas Community. 

SpeedGrader Comment Library 

A new feature in SpeedGrader allows you to save your frequently used comments and reuse them across assignments and courses. You can watch this video about the Comment Library in the Canvas Community to learn more about how it works. 

Zoom Pronouns 

CarmenZoom users can now add pronouns to their display name and share them across all meetings. To take advantage of this feature, you must be using Zoom version 5.7.0 or newer, and you must be logged in to your CarmenZoom account. You can add pronouns and adjust display settings at carmenzoom.osu.edu.  

Update Your Zoom Apps 

Be sure you are running the most recent version of Zoom across all your devices. It is always best practice to keep your apps updated for security reasons, and with Zoom it insures you can take advantage of the latest features such as pronouns. Later this semester, Zoom will require all users to be using up-to-date apps, so if you fall behind, you may be required to update before attending or hosting a meeting.  

Zoom Post-Meeting Survey 

When scheduling meetings with CarmenZoom, you now have the option to send participants a survey after the meeting has ended. To use this feature, you must first log in at carmenzoom.osu.edu, click on Settings in the side menu, navigate to the In Meeting (Basic) section and toggle on the Meeting Survey feature. Once enabled, you will see an option to add a Survey to your scheduled meetings, located at the bottom of the meeting settings page next to Polls. Zoom Support provides more information for adding surveys to your scheduled meetings. 

Mediasite Desktop Software Update  

Mediasite is a lecture capture tool used to record class sessions and upload and store recordings. If you are currently using the Desktop Recorder on your computer to capture lectures, you should update to Mediasite Mosaic at your earliest convenience. The Desktop Recorder app is being retired in favor of Mediasite Mosaic. You can find download instructions in the Teaching and Learning Resource Center.

Need help getting ready for a new semester? Visit the Teaching and Learning Resource Center for how-to guides on eLearning tools and explore teaching topics to learn about instructor presence, Carmen Common Sense and more!