Overview
This article covers the what a course archive is, and the USAHS course archiving policy.
What is course archive?
A Blackboard Course Archive is a record of a course, the grades, and the user interactions. Archiving a course creates a course package in a ZIP file, which can be stored at an external location from Blackboard. In short, the course is removed from Blackboard, which removes access for students and faculty. The ZIP file contains course content, user interactions, and submission receipts and is called an archive package. You can restore archive packages, but they aren't intended for teaching the course again as all user interactions are restored as well.
Why archive a Blackboard Course?
In the past, Blackboard courses remained on Blackboard forever. This made it difficult for instructors to locate their current Blackboard courses. Maintaining a live copy of every course forever also negatively impacts Blackboard’s storage restrictions. By archiving courses, we can alleviate the clutter on courses pages, while maintaining storage levels at an appropriate level.
Current Policy: 5 Year Archive
All courses older than 5 years will be removed from the system, within 1-2 terms of the original run date. This is to reduce the data footprint and clutter created by infrequently accessed courses. Courses include:
- Sections/Course Shells.
- Term Masters greater then 5 years old.*
- Dev Master Archives greater then 5 years old.*
*These courses will not be archived off the system prior to removal.
Restoration of a Course Archive
Archived courses are not gone forever, but are not immediately accessible. If faculty require access to a course older than 5 years, they can make a request by emailing support@usa.edu. It will take between 1-3 weeks to restore a course to the system.
What is contained within a Course Archive?
Internal Blackboard Content
All content created within Blackboard is saved within a course archive. This includes:
- Learning Modules
- Folders
- Documents*
- Links*
- LTI Connections
- Tests/Exams/Quizzes
- Assignments
- Discussions
- Journals
- Student File Submissions
- Grades
- Gradebook
- Student Progress
*Items starred will same the link or the content location. If the link breaks because the website no longer exists or the URL has changed, this will not be included in a Course Archive.
What is not contained within a Course Archive?
3rd Party and External Content (Not in scope of a Blackboard Course Archive)
There are many courses that use third party content that Blackboard connects to using a link, an LTI, or a Building Block. Some of this content may be captured in the archive, and some may not. The major LTI’s that are used across the university are detailed below.
GoReact Submissions and Recordings
- GoReact Submissions do not travel with the Blackboard Course Archive. However, GoReact grades remain intact in the gradebook.
- Video submissions will be lost.
- An archive of video submissions in GoReact is out of scope of a Blackboard Archive.
Respondus Lockdown Browser Recorded Sessions
- Exam Grades are included in a Blackboard Course Archive
- Respondus recordings from completed exams are not included in the Blackboard Course Archive.
- An archive of video recordings of student attempts is out of scope of a Blackboard Archive.
Kaltura
- Kaltura Videos in the course content area and submission videos will travel with the Blackboard Course Archive.
- Graded Kaltura items will also remain.
Examsoft
- Only grades will remain within a Blackboard Course Archive.
- Examsoft content is hosted on a separate environment and not stored within the course.
- An archive of Examsoft exams and content is out of scope of a Blackboard Archive.
ShadowHealth
- Shadowhealth links will be maintained in course copies, but student content will not be maintained in a Blackboard Course Archive
- An archive of this content is out of scope of a Blackboard Archive.
Textbook Content
- Textbook content that students’ access via textbook code will not be maintained within a Blackboard course archive.
- This content is hosted on a separate site, and is impossible to roll into a Blackboard Course Archive
- An archive of this content is out of scope of a Blackboard Archive.
Links to Outside Websites and Files
- Links to external content will vary.
- It’s possible that the original website owner will maintain the link as is, or things could change over time.
- Archives of these pages are out of scope of a Blackboard Archive.
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