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Blackboard Course Site Retention Policy

Purpose of Policy

This policy defines how long a course site will be retained in the centrally-managed Blackboard Learning Management system before it is deleted. It also describes ways instructors can obtain a copy of the contents of a Blackboard site before it is deleted.

Policy Summary

Blackboard course sites will be retained for four years and then deleted. Instructors will have an option to retain older courses if they wish. This policy is effective beginning with Fall 2007 Blackboard course sites and applies to all course sites created after Fall 2007. Blackboard course sites created Summer 2007 and earlier will be retained until further notice. 

Examples: A Blackboard course site created for Fall 2007 term will be deleted after Fall 2011. A Blackboard course site created for Spring 2008 will be deleted after Spring 2012.  

Assumptions

  1. The primary purpose of Blackboard is to provide a method for delivering content and tools that are used to enhance the teaching and learning environment for a class during a given academic period.
  2. A great convenience of Blackboard is the ability to copy materials from older course sites to newer course sites.
  3. Blackboard is not the archival record of a course. There are other university systems which serve as the archival record of course enrollments, grades, etc.
  4. The rationale for a Blackboard Course Site Retention Policy will likely apply to retention policies for other academic tools used by the institution.
  5. The older a Blackboard course site is, the less likely it is to function properly in the Blackboard system, particularly as upgrades are applied to the Blackboard software.

Guiding Principles

  1. To comply with any University policies related to course material retention.
  2. To retain centrally-stored Blackboard course sites and materials for a period of time that is helpful to instructors and students.
  3. To guide instructors in developing their own procedures for long-term storage of their Blackboard materials.
  4. To optimize the performance of the Blackboard system.
  5. To ensure that online storage space provided by OIT for Blackboard is used efficiently and to minimize the financial and technical impact of constantly increasing disk use.                                                                                                                        

What Gets Deleted from a Blackboard Course Site?

Deleting a Blackboard course site permanently removes it from the Blackboard system so that it is no longer accessible. When a Blackboard course site is deleted it is automatically removed from a user’s course list. 

All materials stored in the Blackboard course site are deleted. This includes all files, grades, assignments, quizzes, surveys, links and anything else associated with the course site that is stored in the Blackboard database and file system areas. 

Content stored outside of Blackboard and linked from within the Blackboard course web site is not deleted. Rather, the links are deleted, because that is what is stored in the Blackboard database. The retention of materials outside of the Blackboard system is subject to the terms and conditions of those other systems, whether they are departmental servers and systems, OIT centrally-supported systems, or non-Duke external systems. 

How Do I Retain a Copy of the Content Before the Course is Deleted?

  1. Instructors can use materials from older courses in newer courses. 
  • Using self-service tools built into Blackboard. See the instructions for details to copy the content of a source (old) course to a destination (new) course. Instructors can choose to copy pieces of the source course instead of the whole source course.
  • Assistance is available. Blackboard support can assist in the copy of an older Blackboard course site to a new Blackboard course site. To use this service, fill in the Request a Site form.
  • Contact the OIT Service Desk for additional assistance, or fill in the Blackboard Help Request Form.

2.  Instructors can keep a copy of their materials outside of Blackboard.

  • Instructors can Archive or Export a course using the Archive or Export feature in the Control Panel, and save a copy to their local PC or burn the content to CD or DVD for portability. Course data saved to a local hard drive should be included in the regular backup procedure for that computer. Note: For courses with an exceptionally large amount of content, your internet browser (Internet Explorer, Mozilla Firefox, or Safari) might "time out" and not successfully complete the archive operation. This will be corrected in a future version of Blackboard.  Contact the OIT Help Desk for assistance with time-out issues or any other assistance for archiving or exporting assistance.
  • Instructors can store files in other university systems. Options include departmental servers, and OIT services such as iTunes U, Lectopia and WebFiles. In some cases, making one of these other sources the primary storage location and linking to the content from within your Blackboard course site is the best option.  Considerations regarding where to store files include, but are not limited to: convenience to students and instructor, appropriateness for particular class activity, file size, multimedia needs, and legal compliance with respect to intellectual property (Fair Use, DMCA [Digital Millennium Copyright Act], TEACH Act [Technology, Education, and Copyright Harmonization Act], etc.). For help in devising the best strategy for matching storage needs with your class goals, contact cit@duke.edu.

Scope of Policy

This policy covers course sites and materials stored on disk space managed by OIT (the Office of Information Technology) and created by or managed through the Blackboard application supported by the Center for Instructional Technology (CIT) for Fall 2007 and later course sites. Summer 2007 and earlier courses will be retained until further notice. This policy does not cover materials stored in an individual’s home directory, personal Web space, centrally-supported OIT services, school-based media servers or departmental/school-based file storage space.

CIT and OIT will retain Blackboard materials and course sites as described above for four years. Blackboard provides tools and CIT provides support for instructors wishing to use content from older Blackboard course web sites in new Blackboard course web sites. Instructors who need help archiving their Blackboard course site to keep a copy for their own records may review the Blackboard at Duke support site at Duke for more information about archiving a course site. Faculty may also request, with approval from all instructors listed in their course site(s), that their course sites and materials be deleted earlier than this policy describes, by contacting the OIT Help Desk.

Review of Policy

This policy has been reviewed by the CIT Director, Senior Administrators, ITAC, and the Blackboard Advisory Group. The policy may be reviewed and changed as needed. 

Issues to be Further Considered

Content stored in other campus tools can often be linked from within Blackboard. These other tools may have their own retention policies. Therefore the ability to access these materials is independent of the Blackboard system. 

Older courses may not function properly as we upgrade to newer versions of Blackboard.   

Periodic updates of Blackboard are required to maintain our support levels from Blackboard, Inc. and typically include new and enhanced features that are of value to instructors and students.