Reducing Your Blackboard Course Storage (Best Practices)

Follow the steps below to help reduce your Blackboard Learn course storage footprint. 

• Distribute your audio and video files using Panopto.
• Allow for student audio/video submissions via Panopto.
• Remove old files or files with multiple versions from your Blackboard Learn course.

For any audio/video files that you distribute, use Panopto Video:

1. First, Configure/Provision Panopto for a Course (How-to) 
2. Once the connection between Panopto and Blackboard Learn is complete, you can start Uploading Videos to Panopto or create lecture captures using Panopto software.
3. OPTIONAL: Once the video is in Panopto, you can choose to add the Panopto video link as a part of the content area in Blackboard Learn.

Creating Assignments folder in Panopto:

Student audio/video submissions use the Assignments folder in Panopto. This requires a bit of a change in student behavior.

• Configuring the Panopto Assignments Folder for Student Video Submissions

You need to be aware of how permissions get assigned to the Assignments folder in Panopto. When a student submits an audio/video-only file you and the student can both see it by default. This means that students cannot see the videos submitted by other students.

Assignment folder permission options:

1. Prepare instructions to inform the students that all students will be able to view videos students uploaded to the Panopto Assignments folder. NOTE: This option has the potential to be a possible FERPA violation, so make sure instructions are clear. In addition, modify the view permissions on the Assignments folder to “Allow viewers to see each others sessions.”

2. The second option would be to ask each student to change the viewable permissions for their submitted videos to "everyone in the class". 

NOTE: The creation of the Panopto Assignments folder does not create a grade book column in your Blackboard Learn course. You need to create Blackboard assignment so students can submit their video URLs if you wish to assign a grade. It's recommended to tell students to "paste a link to your Panopto submission in the Blackboard assignment". This will be a two-step process for the students, and it will alert you to a student submission which can be assessed by you. 

Student audio/video creation options: 

• Provide students with the article about Creating Student Recordings in Panopto (How-to).

• Otherwise, students may create audio/video files on their mobile devices and upload them to the Assignments folder by using Uploading Videos to Panopto (How-to).

What is the Content Collection? 

The Content Collection within Blackboard Learn is the file repository for everything you upload to your course content area. All files must be stored before they are made available to students via links from your course content; this process is done automatically by Blackboard Learn on file upload.

If the audio/video files are still linked in your content area, please remove them or they will become broken links in the student view. Even when the files are removed from the content area, they will continue to exist in your Content Collection and will thus continue to require storage. Files you are ok to remove also need to be removed from the Content Collection to be completely deleted from the LMS. 

• To access the Content Collection, go to your Blackboard Homepage > Tools > Content Collection > Select the specific course.
•  Review the files stored in your course and delete files no longer needed or duplicated unnecessarily (for example: multiple versions of the same file).

NOTE: If the files are still needed, please leave them in the Content Collection or they will leave a broken link in the student view.

You have more control over your content and can archive a course and maintain it locally on your own computer when your course is less than 1GB in size. A course that is larger than 1GB requires assistance to archive - your LMS Administrator has the ability to help with courses between 0-2 GB.  Please submit a Blackboard Learn Ultra Request and choose the Consultation option for further assistance. 

Once a course is removed from the LMS you will no longer have easy access to the course content and will require a course restore request to access this data which takes a minimum of 5 working days post-request. To request a course restoration, you will need to provide the specific term, course number, and CRN in order to find the archive in our repository.