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Link Validator in Carmen, and other tools to double-check your course

At the beginning of each semester, instructors often wonder if the pages and links they copied from their previous semester’s course transferred in good working order to the new, current-semester copy of their course.  There are many reasons a link that worked perfectly last semester might not work this semester, so it is best practice to check your Carmen course links at least once per term. Carmen has a handy link validator that will do this (mostly) automatically for you.  In your Carmen course, go to Settings > Validate Links in Content. The link validator will cause a process to run that identifies links in your course that may be problematic, and it will even tell you the reason for the problem.

If you have questions about using this tool, please let us know in the CON-IT department.  Also, check out the additional ways you can double-check your course for errors and usability according to the Canvas community.

Course Link Validator

Course Link Validator

Links in Canvas: How to Bypass “Insecure” Warnings in Firefox

When scrolling through your Canvas course you may have noticed that some links (to Panopto recordings, OSU websites, or outside websites) will show a preview on the page, and some will instead show a warning of “insecure content” and no preview.  The warning appears in red text in the screen shot below.  Generally, these links are safe to follow, but always exercise your best judgment when you receive a warning such as this.

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The Instructure Guide to Canvas has a page explaining this phenomenon and several others issues that may arise depending on the browser you are using to access Canvas.  That guide is here: Which Browsers does Canvas Support?

For those who use Firefox, here are a few quick tips so you or your students can still access this content.

When the insecure content warning comes up, you can view the link in a new tab by simply left-clicking on the link (circled in green here). This is the easiest solution.  If you want to view the link within the Canvas page, click on the padlock icon in the address box (circled in blue).

A dialogue box will open up. Click the arrow circled below:

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Next, click “disable protection for now”.  This should allow the video (or webpage) to load in the box below the link.

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If you are accessing Canvas through another browser, such as Google Chrome, see the link above that will help you troubleshoot issues.

As always, feel free to contact us if you have specific questions!