Teaching and Learning Resource Center

Getting Started with Carmen for Students

CarmenCanvas is Ohio State's learning management system, used by instructors, staff, and teaching assistants to create and share course materials. It's named for the song "Carmen Ohio"—Ohio State's alma mater.

This instructional guide includes recommendations to help you log in and navigate your courses. In many cases, this guide contains links to more detailed articles about the various tools in Carmen.

Before getting started

Familiarize yourself with the components that make up CarmenCanvas

Carmen landing page

The Carmen landing page provides functionality customized for Ohio State. This is how most students access their courses. Lean more about navigating the Carmen landing page

CarmenCanvas

Once you click on your course from the Carmen landing page, you are taken to your actual courses in Canvas. Canvas is the learning management system that is used to create and deliver course content and assessments. CarmenCanvas is the Ohio State-branded version of Canvas. CarmenCanvas is often shortened to Carmen. 

Canvas Mobile Apps

The vendor for Canvas provides mobile apps for iOS and Android devices. Mobile apps are not intended to provide the full Canvas experience. See Canvas App v. Browser Tips for recommendations on which activities to use in the app versus the browser.

Review technical requirements

Review this list of the browser and computer requirements for Carmen.

We recommend using the most up-to-date version of your preferred web browser. You might consider having more than one browser installed. If you experience issues using Carmen, try completing the same task in a different browser before seeking additional support.

1. Log in and navigate your courses

To get started, log into the Carmen landing page. Once your instructor has published the course, click the course title link from the My Courses list to enter it. There is also a shortcut directly to theCarmenCanvas dashboard in the right-hand sidebar of the landing page. Learn more about navigating the Carmen landing page and your course homepage

Don't forget! Carmen login requires multifactor authentication, so be sure to set up BuckeyePass

Don't see your course? See our frequently asked questions for more information on why you may not be seeing your course. 
 

2. Customize CarmenCanvas

Personalize your Carmen experience by updating your user settings, notification preferences, and course list

Update your user settings and add a profile picture

Carmen profile and user settings let you control your personal information in CarmenCanvas including: 

Select your notification preferences

Instructors might message you directly or make an announcement to your whole class in Carmen. You can decide how you receive notifications for each type of course activity. You can choose email, push notifications as well as the frequency for these notifications. We recommend setting your preferences so you receive email notifications of all Carmen announcements, grades, and assignment updates.

Update your favorite courses

Update your favorite courses in Carmen so only your current courses appear in your course list on the Canvas dashboard and mobile apps. You can also create nicknames to shorten the course title, which will then appear throughout Canvas.

3. Explore your courses

Each Carmen course you take will look different based on which tools your instructors use to organize the course content. They may use PagesFiles, external content, and Modules; or, most likely, a combination of each. Learn more about navigating your course content

See the following instructional guides for common questions about participating in a Carmen course. 

Assignments
Calendar
Discussions
Grades
Groups


For additional information, see the complete Canvas Student Guide

Help with Carmen

Contact the Carmen team for additional support with Carmen questions or issues. 

For general technical assistance, including email or password issues please contact the IT Service Desk.

You can contact the IT Service Desk 24/7 via phone, email and online Self Service.