Sandboxes (and how to get one of your own!)

What is a sandbox?

Sandboxes are Moodle pages that exist in the Innovate version of Moodle, our behind-the-scenes testing environment. Sandbox pages look and feel just like a regular Moodle course, but without any students enrolled. This means they are a perfect place for you to experiment and practice using Moodle in a no-stakes environment. You can practice adding, editing, and deleting stuff, but no one will see it and it will never affect a live course. This is why we love sandboxes as learning spaces! You're free to make mistakes (and learn from them!) without the worry that you might break something (you can't). 

As you work through the tasks in this resource, we recommend that you get a "sandbox" page on our Innovate server. You have two options as to how to get a sandbox:

• Option 1 (recommended): Call CTET Studio and ask them to create a copy of the "Moodle: Editing & Enhancing Online (MEEO) Sandbox - Master Copy" for you on Innovate Now. This option will give you some resources in the course to start with, so you are not working from a blank course shell.

• Option 2: Consult the Knowledgebase article, Sandbox or Community of Practice sites in Moodle, to learn how to set up your own sandbox site in Innovate. This article will walk you through the steps to create a blank course shell.

Once you get your sandbox, you may wish to work through through the resources in this course having two browser windows open: one for your sandbox course on Innovate, and one for this course on CS Online (remember that these are on two different Moodle servers so you will have to log in separately to each).