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Sandbox Courses
What is a sandbox course?
A sandbox course is a testing or staging course that you can use to prepare a course for the semester.
What should or should not be in a sandbox course?
Your sandbox courses will have neither users (besides yourself) nor content. Note that this also means that the pre-populated content usually found in the Getting Started section will not be included either. This is so that when you copy your course over to the course shell created and loaded for the semester, you will automatically have the most up-to-date Getting Started content. Therefore, your sandbox course should not contain any of the following items: Master Course Syllabus, Instructor Syllabus, Netiquette, Quality Online Standards (QM Standards), or Need Help? — as these will automatically be created for you when courses are loaded.
Note: Faculty should upload their individual instructor syllabus after the Bb shell individual sections have been loaded, which includes the pre-populated Getting Started content.
How can I get a sandbox course?
- Go to cvcc.tech/request. This will bring you to the EdTech Request page.
- Select sandbox course under the “I would like to request a(n)” heading and click next.
3. This will take you to the Sandbox Request page. Here, you will enter the name for the sandbox and why you need it. Then indicate whether you have a sandbox for this course and click submit.
Note that if you need more than one sandbox, then you should submit the form for each sandbox course you would like to request. It is recommended that you have one sandbox course per course that you teach (not per section).
What if I already have a sandbox, but it has stuff in it?
You may already have a sandbox course that you used when completing the EOI training — look through your course list to see if any of your courses have the word sandbox in them. You may even want to check to see if you’ve hidden any courses from your My Courses list in Blackboard.
If you already have a sandbox that you’d like to repurpose or clear out you can navigate to cvcc.tech/request and request to bulk delete the contents of an existing sandbox course. Once you’ve submitted this request, an EdTech Team Member will delete all items in your course, which will then allow you to have a like-new sandbox course to work with.
How do I prepare my sandbox course for the course template in 2024?
All new sandbox creations will automatically come populated with the new course template. You can, however, prepare your current/existing sandbox course for the new template by following the directions at Preparing Your Blackboard Course for the new Navigation Template.
How do I get the content I’ve created in the sandbox course into my semester shell?
Once you’ve gotten your course setup for the semester in the sandbox course, you can perform a course copy to duplicate the contents into the semester shell (which includes the pre-populated Getting Started content).
For further help with any of these directions, if you have any questions, or would like any assistance, please contact the HelpDesk by email at or at 828-327-7000 ext. 4444.