ABOUT ONLINE@UT > Policies and Procedures
Blackboard Course Retention
The University of Tennessee, Knoxville began its Application Service Provider relationship with Blackboard ASP in June 2003. At that time we migrated 80 gigabytes of course and database data from Knoxville to the ASP data center. In the three and a half years since that migration, our storage needs at Blackboard have increased to more than half a terabyte. Not only does storing this data mean increased costs for UTK because of our contract with ASP, but operating and maintaining a system of this size results in slower performance at all times and increased downtimes during upgrades and unplanned outages than would be the case with a more optimized setup. To cite just one example, recovery from table corruption during the January 21 (2007) outage required three days, mostly because of the time necessary to restore tables from backup.To save the University money, increase operational speed, and ease system recovery, therefore, the ITC has developed the following plan for removing old data from the Blackboard ASP system, while ensuring maximum retention and availability of all necessary course materials.
Section 1. Overview
1.1 Purpose, Scope, and Objectives
The purpose of this standard is to define the duration of course retention on the Blackboard Academic Suite at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. This standard refers to academic course sites as well as user accounts in the Blackboard System, and also outlines the availability of student enrollments. Course instructors will be notified multiple times well in advance and given explicit instructions for archiving their course content before any data is permanently purged from the system.1.2 Assumptions and Constraints
The Blackboard system is hosted by Blackboard on hardware located in their Virginia central machine room.To provide optimal performance, it is important to limit the amount of information stored within the Blackboard database. Purging course sites that have been inactive for more than two years will help maintain a reasonable database size and provide consistent performance and download speeds.
Because most courses are taught at least once every two years, this policy will allow instructors to copy content from inactive to current courses and to archive/export course content to their own local or network storage. Students who have successfully completed a course no longer need access to the course's Blackboard site and its content. Students who take an incomplete for the course will need to remain active in Blackboard so that they can access course material to finish the course after the term has expired.
Section 2. Description
2.1 Guidelines/Procedures
Courses will be available to instructors the entire two years before the course is deleted from the system. Instructors have the option to request the deletion of a course site one calendar year after the end of the semester in which the course was offered.Automatic course deletions will occur twice a year in January and July and will affect courses that are then more than two years old. For example, summer and fall 2006 courses will be due for deletion in January 2009. Spring 2007 courses will be due for deletion in July 2009.
Instructors will be contacted via email notification at two months, one month, and one week prior to the course site being deleted. Notifications will remind instructors that courses are being deleted on the designated date and time and will provide explicit instructions for archiving courses and course content.
User accounts in Blackboard will be deleted from the system after two years of inactivity, which is defined as all of the following being true: 1) not being in the recurring nightly feed from LDAP; 2) not having logged into the system in two years; 3) and not being enrolled in any course or organization on the system. These accounts will be deleted twice a year concurrent with the course deletions. Because these accounts by definition will not have valid email addresses at the time of their removal, no attempt will be made to contact their owners.
Note: The above defines criteria for user account removal only. Accounts will not be deleted but may be unavailable from time to time for other reasons (e.g. a student account when the student is not registered during the current term).