Retaining and retrieving previous course content (course retention standard)

Blackboard access will end June 2026

The course retention standard has been updated to reflect the Blackboard retirement

Blackboard access will end for OHIO users in June 30, 2026, aligning with the Canvas Learning Management System Implementation Timeline. Please see the information on course retention below for courses taught

• Before Summer 2019
• Summer 2019 and beyond

If you would like to retain your Blackboard course content, review the instructions on Saving Blackboard Content  or Moving Course Content from Blackboard to Canvas.

Description

The Blackboard course retention standard specifies that courses will be archived two (2) years after the published course end date. The standard specifies what courses qualify for archive and deletion, as well as when the deletion activity occurs so that we can keep Blackboard Learn current and manage course data according to industry best practices, such as practices of IUC (Inter-University Council of Ohio) peer institutions. This page includes standards, definitions, exceptions, and the schedule for course deletion.

• Course retention standard
• Definitions
• Restore an archived course for review
• Request an exception
• Schedule of deletion

Environment

PC and Mac

Course Retention Standard

Note: The original course retention standard applies to courses taught through Spring 2018-19 and before. Since Ohio University is transitioning from Blackboard to Canvas through June 2026, a transitional approach to archiving will be in place until June 2028. OIT will leverage an external archiving product starting in Summer 2025 to support the archival of Blackboard data that would formerly have been archived internally within Blackboard.

• Starting May 1, 2021 all courses that were taught before Summer 2019 & have been archived for longer than five (5) years will be subject to permanent deletion from Blackboard. The course deletion process will occur every semester. 
• Blackboard courses that were taught before Summer 2019 will be available to instructors within Blackboard for two (2) years after the course's end date, plus the semester in which the course is last taught. Two (2) years after the course's end date, the course is automatically archived and is no longer visible in Blackboard but can be restored upon request by contacting the IT Service Desk.
• The standard applies to all for-credit courses archived for five (5) years or more [seven (7) years after the course end date]. The impacted courses will have Blackboard Course IDs that look like this example, MATH_1000_001_LAB_SPRG_2010-11.  
• Instructors are also encouraged to create and keep a local export (copy) of their own courses. Exports of courses will include content created by the instructor but automatically exclude any student work or submissions. Instructions to export and archive courses are available here.
• Instructors who wish to review an archived course can contact the IT Service Desk for help.

Course taught Summer 2019 and beyond

• Course retention period: For all academic courses that conclude between May 2019 and December 2025, the University will retain a copy of the course for two years (ending June 2028) in a third-party archiving product managed by OIT. 

Note: Academic courses are defined as courses generated from OHIO’s Student Information System (PeopleSoft) for academic credit. This does not include Blackboard organizations, test courses, continuing education (non-credit, manually created instructional experiences), or any other kind of manually created courses. Instructors must save this type of content on their own if they wish to retain it.

Definitions

The following definitions will be used for the description of the course retention standard: 

• Blackboard Course: All for-credit courses are automatically created in Blackboard eight (8) weeks prior to their start date. 
• Archived Courses: All Blackboard courses, up to and including those taught during Spring 18-19, are automatically archived two (2) years after their end date, at which point, they are no longer visible in Blackboard. 
• External Archived Course: All Blackboard courses taught during and following Spring 2018-19, externally archived until June 2028.  
• Course End Date: The published end date of the course (which may or may not correspond with the semester end date).  
• Course Restoration: A process completed by the IT Service Desk to restore a previously archived course, so it is again visible in the instructor's Blackboard course list.

Restore an archived course for review

Courses that have been archived within Blackboard and have not yet been deleted in accordance with the Schedule of Deletion can be restored until June 2026. Courses that have already been deleted from Blackboard cannot be restored.  

Note: Please allow five (5) to seven (7) business days for your request to be processed. If your course has already been archived externally or has been deleted, OIT will notify you about the status of your course. Content that is archived externally will be available for instructors, but the process will be managed with the external product and Canvas, it will not occur within Blackboard.

Blackboard internal archives

To request the review of an archived course, that is still archived within Blackboard, a current Ohio University faculty/staff member enrolled as an instructor in the course may contact the IT Service Desk with the following information:  

• Subject: Request to Review Archived Blackboard Course 
• Blackboard Course ID (For Example, MATH_1000_001_LAB_SPRG_2010-11) 
  • At a minimum, include: Subject [MATH], Course Number [1000], Term it was taught [Spring of 2010-11] 
• The Ohio ID of the instructor 

Outcome: When your request is processed you will be granted access to view the course for one (1) week.  The course will then be returned to archive unless an exception is requested.

External archives

To request the review of a course that has been archived externally a current Ohio University faculty/staff member enrolled as an instructor in the course may contact the IT Service Desk and request a consultation with a learning systems analyst.  

Exceptions

Exceptions will be evaluated on a case-by-case basis.

Request an exception

Given the transition from Blackboard to Canvas, all data will be deleted from Blackboard by June 30, 2026. Only the last seven years of academic records as defined in the retention standard will be retained through June 2028 in an external archiving product.

If courses are still available in Blackboard, instructors can request an exception for their own courses by contacting the IT Service Desk: 

1. Open a Blackboard Learning Management System (LMS) help ticket.
2. Under Title, enter "Course Retention Exception Request" 
3. Under Description, provide the Blackboard Course ID(s) for the course(s) you would like to be exempt from deletion 

• Preferred format would be, for example, MATH_1000_100_LEC_SPRG_2017-18 
• If you do not have that information, please provide at least: 
  • Prefix and Catalog Number (MATH 1000 in example above) 
  • Term and Academic Year (SPRG_2017-18 in the example above)

4. Under Detail, select Archiving
5. At the bottom of the form. select, Submit

Outcome: You should now be able to request an exception to the course retention standard.

Schedule of Deletion

Courses taught Summer 2019 and beyond

Since Ohio University is transitioning from Blackboard to Canvas through June 2026, a transitional approach to course archiving will be in place until June 2028. OIT will leverage an external archiving product starting in Summer 2025 to support the archival of Blackboard data that would  have previously been archived within Blackboard. 

The external Blackboard archiving will begin in June 2025. The archiving process requires that formerly archived are restored and made visible in Blackboard for approximately a month before being transferred to the external archive tool. After courses are transferred to the external archiving product, they will be deleted from Blackboard and will no longer be visible in your dashboard. 

Courses taught before Summer 2019

All courses taught in Blackboard in Spring 2018-19 or before will be deleted prior to the shutdown of Blackboard, which is outlined in the deletion schedule below:
 

Governance 

This standard will be reviewed by the Teaching and Learning Advisory Community and the IT Strategy and Governance Committee based on fluctuations in the technology landscape, and/or changes to established practices and mandates.  

Reviewers 

The reviewers of this standard are members of the Teaching and Learning Advisory Community and the IT Strategy and Governance Committee. The Director and Chairs Council and EPSA have also reviewed the draft standard.  

History 

Draft version of this standard has been approved on February 17, 2021. 

Get help from OIT

• Visit the Learning Management System: Blackboard page to create a ticket
• Visit the Technology Resources and Training page for an OIT training 

Additional resources

• Blackboard Learn Help for Instructors - Original View
• Blackboard Learn Help for Students - Original View
• Quick Start for the Blackboard Mobile App
• Publisher Content & Add-ons
• System Requirements