Ohio State is in the process of revising websites and program materials to accurately reflect compliance with the law. While this work occurs, language referencing protected class status or other activities prohibited by Ohio Senate Bill 1 may still appear in some places. However, all programs and activities are being administered in compliance with federal and state law.

Teaching and Learning Resource Center

Ally in Forum Courses

All digital content in CarmenCanvas needs to meet Title II accessibility requirements, including non-academic courses. You can use Ally in forum courses to improve their accessibility. This is particularly important for Forums / non-academic courses used to interact with students and other faculty/staff. Some examples include: 

  • Student organization and Greek Life courses. 
  • Orientation, Student Success, Placement Testing courses, etc. 
  • Faculty/Staff training courses. 

Sandbox or non-academic courses that are used for course development or as a repository for shared course materials do not require the same levels of accessibility. However, the content does need to be accessible when it is copied to the course you intend to use with participants.  

As you evaluate your non-academic courses to decide on an accessibility strategy, you may decide to close courses that are no longer used or needed. Carmen courses cannot be deleted. Instead, there are three approaches to essentially closing the course. 

Closing Unused Forums 

Forum courses that are no longer in use should be closed by any of the following methods: 

Unpublish the Course 

Courses with no student participation (submissions, discussion posts, etc.) can be unpublished to remove access to the courses by most users who would require access to accessible content. People with instructional roles would still retain access to the course.  

Change the Participation Dates and Restrict Viewing Access

Changing the Participation Dates of the course is a way to end access to the course after a date that you specify. 

  1. To restrict the Participation Dates, navigate to your course’s Settings page. 
  1. Under the Course Details Tab, scroll down to the Participation section. 
  1. Click on the drop-down menu and select the Course option. 
  1. A range of date options will appear. Set the course’s end date to the previous day if you wish to close the course now. Otherwise, set it to when you wish the course to close. 
  1. To prevent students from accessing the course after the end date, click the Restrict students from viewing courses after end date checkbox. 

For more in-depth instructions complete with screenshots, scroll down to "Setting course dates” on the Term Dates and Course Availability article. 

Remove People from a Forum Course 

Removing all participants from the course will render the accessibility requirements moot. 

Master courses are sometimes not compatible with Manage Participants. If you cannot remove participants, use the Participation Dates method described above. While people may use the term “master course” in a variety of ways, this comment pertains to courses with “master” hard-coded into the course title. 

A participant’s access to your course can be removed using the Make Inactive action in Manage Participants. Making someone inactive in the Carmen course roster will prevent them from viewing and accessing the course and stop all notifications. Their name will still be listed in the roster on the Carmen People tab, but they will be marked inactive, regardless of the role they held. 

Visit the Manage Participants page to learn how to remove people from a course.

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