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Overview
In an effort to maintain the high availability, stability, and performance level of the University’s Learning Management System (Blackboard), Information Services removes old courses from the environment on an annual basis. Courses that are 4 years old or older are removed after the end of each Spring semester. Non-academic courses are not included in this yearly process. Faculty are encouraged to download files for their own records or generate a course archive, which creates a frozen snapshot or permanent record of a course.
Details / Instructions
Notes on the Course Archival Process
An archive includes all the content, course statistics, users, and course interactions, such as blog posts, discussions, attendance data, and grades. Individual files that the instructor has uploaded to a course will be accessible within the archive file, but a full restoration of the course back into Blackboard will require a Blackboard administrator. Panopto videos are not included within the course archive, as they are available directly on https://urcapture.hosted.panopto.com/, even after the course has been removed from Blackboard.
Instructions
1. Go to your course’s Control Panel and select Packages and Utilities and then Export/Archive Course
![](https://spidertechnet.richmond.edu/TDPortal/Images/Viewer?fileName=34faecc9-2839-4845-91ff-5bcbdae2e405.png)
2. Click the Archive button, select options, and hit Submit.
![](https://spidertechnet.richmond.edu/TDPortal/Images/Viewer?fileName=cb830681-0b17-4469-8426-b17fc6190a7c.png)
3. After you’ve received your confirmation e-mail that the course has been archived (usually within 10-20 minutes), go back to “Export/Archive Course” in your Control Panel.
![](https://spidertechnet.richmond.edu/TDPortal/Images/Viewer?fileName=4fafd425-2a18-4b5e-b16e-f3d72a53bd9e.png)
4. Left-click the archived .zip file and save it to your desktop. NOTE: You will need a local copy of this .zip file in order to restore the course after deletion. Ensure that you have downloaded the file somewhere other than Blackboard.
See Also