An overwhelming majority of Ohio State students already use Carmen as their communication hub to access course materials, submit assignments, and check grades and upcoming due dates. Adding your core course materials to Carmen and using announcements for up-to-date communications increase the probability that students will notice and take heed of important class information.  

Establishing Carmen as the hub for course communication and materials also makes adjusting modalities due to emergencies much easier. 

Learn more about Carmen Common Sense: Best Practices for creating a student-friendly Carmen course. 

Having multiple formats and longer intervals to access course materials (such as recorded lectures, discussion prompts, or videos) improves access and inclusion for students. Hosting course materials online particularly helps to support students with disabilities, non-native English speakers, and novice learners who may need to view or experience something more than once, or who  want to refresh their knowledge of course materials and rehearse their responses to important class questions.

Explore these topics further with the following guides: 

• Shaping a Positive Learning Environment
• Universal Design for Learning

By assessing student work across multiple modalities (online quizzes, discussion board posts), you increase the degree to which students receive feedback to their work. 

Routinely duplicating the same experience online and in person may lead to decreased attendance and engagement. If you plan to post materials online, use class time for active learning or exploring course content in a way that adds value to key course materials. 

Preparing and maintaining an organized presence in Carmen takes time and energy throughout the term. You can make maintaining a Carmen site more efficient by identifying and focusing on the core materials you want students to spend extra time with outside of class. 

Sharing materials in Carmen only works if students know where and why they should access them. Include your plan for using Carmen in your syllabus and remind students in-person early and often about how they should use the Carmen space. 

Students may not approach Carmen course content the way an instructor would. Even if the majority of materials will be shared in person, use modules, headers, and clear file names to improve Carmen course navigation.  

Remember that even with scheduled face-to-face meetings, many students will need to miss portions of class time due to various schedule conflicts. Posting your materials online in Carmen allows students to easily find what was missed and stay on track. 

• Students report a preference for instructors to use Modules for course materials, as it allows for easy organization (say, by week or class session). You can share materials such as readings, videos, URL links, and lecture/classroom session recordings with students. 
• Establishing Carmen modules as your hub for materials early makes it easy to pivot online if needed. 
• Consider updating file names for course materials to ensure materials are easily and clearly accessible, especially later in the semester.  
• Use text headers or pages to clarify what is required before, during, or after your classroom session. 
• For materials you will not personally create, such as readings, films, videos created by others, and external websites, create a page in the weekly module to group resources together. You may have a Read page of all the readings from different sources and a Watch page with all the videos. Alternately, you could group a series of readings and videos about the same case study together. Wherever possible, link directly to the required materials and provide some context for how and why you would like students to engage with them. 

Students need opportunities to interact with peers and instructors. Discussing content with peers helps students feel like they belong in a community of learners. Moreover, when students come together, they can help each other understand class material, identify misunderstandings, and synthesize new ideas.  Additionally, making space for students to ask questions allows you to assess whether you need to review a concept, go slower, or go into more depth.  

• Consider having students use a collaborative document where they can capture their ideas and discussion points. 
• To collect feedback from your students, you can ask them to complete an anonymous survey in an ungraded Carmen quiz. 
• Consider getting feedback several times in the term, with particular emphasis on the first few weeks or no later than the middle of the term. Ask students about struggles they may be having with learning in this course and/or about aspects of the course that are helping them learn. 
• Check-in with students about components of the course, such as the Carmen organization and lecture format. Keep the focus on learning, not on what students like or dislike. 

Learn more about facilitating meaningful class discussions in face-to-face and online contexts. 

• Regardless of modality, all courses should use a Carmen Gradebook. Include the due date for each assignment item to populate the course calendar within Carmen. 
• Whenever possible, give students realistic timelines for when they can expect work to be graded and what type of feedback will be given. 
• Be flexible regarding student access to assignment technologies. Allow multiple formats for assignments when possible, such as permitting a discussion post to be video or text, or a problem set to be typed or photographed from handwritten paper. 
• Have a flexible plan for how you will accept late work. 
• Remember that even with scheduled face-to-face meetings, you will need to have assignment information readily available both in person and online. Some students may need to miss portions of class time. 
• Give clear, explicit directions for the steps in the assignment and provide links to student resources. These tools will help students succeed and reduce time spent clarifying course expectations. The Carmen Course template provides a quick start for what to include in an online assignment. 
• Repeat any reminders or updates about assignments made in class using Carmen announcements.