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Home > Help & Support > Knowledge Base > Teaching & Learning > Blackboard > Learning Management System Course Retention Guidelines
Retaining Course Content | Technical Assistance |

Learning Management System Course Retention Guidelines

In an effort to provide faculty and students with adequate access to past course sites and information contained in the campus-sponsored learning management system (LMS) for reference, copying, and contesting grades while maintaining a stable LMS infrastructure (performance, storage, and bandwidth), below are guidelines that will govern the retention of course sites.

“Course sites” refer to the space in which materials are hosted on the LMS. Course materials include files uploaded by faculty and or students that have access to the site, assignments submitted by students, and grade book data.

Course sites will be retained in the system for two full years, and then will be permanently deleted. Faculty will receive an email one month before each deletion.

Content stored in other campus resources (i.e. Kaltura) is often linked to from within the LMS. These tools may have their own retention policies and therefore the ability to access these materials is independent of these guidelines.

Permanent Courses, Sandbox Courses, and Organizations will not be deleted.

Retaining Course Content

Please note that it is the responsibility of the faculty member to archive and/or copy their course site. Faculty who would like to retain a copy of their course site(s) prior to deletion have several options:

  1. Local Export/Archive
    Course sites and/or grades can be stored on a personally managed storage device (e.g., computer hard drive, external hard drive, thumb drive, etc.) for future reference by the faculty member. See instructions on how to create an export or archive of your course.
  2. Course Copy
    Each semester a new course site is created for courses being offered. Faculty can opt to copy content from a previously developed course site to a newer course site. See instructions on how to create a copy of your course.

Technical Assistance

For technical assistance with course copy or archiving, or to determine when courses will be deleted, contact the ITS Support Center.

Last modified: February 25, 2022

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