Sandboxes are effectively Course Versions without an association to a course.  This can allow you to rapid prototype what a course might look like with a faculty member without it being associated to anything.  Some use-cases for sandboxes:

  • You want to create an open resource that isn't associated to any course (like Our Department's Training)
  • You want to have a conversation about what a course might look like with each of the different models
  • You want an internal bank of resources that can be referenced in other courses but is effectively invisible to end-users (like standard orientation materials)
  • You want to setup a temporary space for a presentation / demo that can be self contained and removed afterwards.
  • You want to try out different instructional approaches in the ID toolkit without impacting currently active course sections
  • You want to create ELMS documentation (that's how this was all generated!)

A lot of these reasons are mental but there is peace of mind in knowing that a sandbox is more or less in-accessible to the public (unless you want it to be).