The archive course feature creates a frozen snapshot or permanent record of your course including all the content, grade history, and user interactions. This includes all the content, course statistics, users, and course interactions, such as assignment submissions, discussions, and grades. When you archive a course, it isn't deleted from the system. However, when you save an archive from a course, it is saved as a ZIP file which you can download to your file storage. More information on Auto-archives.
The export course feature creates a ZIP file of your course content that you can import to create a new course-without any users or user interactions with the course. The export only includes what you select from the list of options. No student or participant data is included in an export. More information on course exports.
Importing content usually happens from a ZIP file. Importing content from within a course will only upload content and will NOT include student data (even if student data is included in the ZIP file you are uploading). This is a great feature/approach if you have a past archive or export and wish to access the content from the past course offering. More information on course imports.
Restoring a Course with content and including student data requires the help of a system administrator (see more information about making a request below). More information about restoring courses.
Auto-archives happen on a daily basis in active courses around approximately 3am in the morning.
- An active course is one that has been recently visited by students or instructor. Auto-archives will continue once every 24 hours for the following 7 days after an active visit to a course.
- If a course is visited continuously, only the past 30 days of auto-archives are available by the system administrator.
- The most recent auto-archive will then be maintained by the system for a total of 180 days.
Instructors may access Automatic Archives from within their course.
Reinstating an archived course requires a Blackboard Administrator to assist in the restore.
NOTE: Archive packages are downloaded as compressed ZIP files. Do not unzip an archive package or delete files from the package, as contents will not restore correctly.
Exports can be completed by instructors, course builders, and instructional designers. After you export your course, the process will take just a few minutes to finish. You will need to refresh the page to see the export file become available. Please save the ZIP file somewhere for easy access.
NOTE: Export packages are downloaded as compressed ZIP files and are imported in the same format. Do not unzip an export package or delete files from the package, as contents will not import correctly.
Once you have the downloaded ZIP file from the course export (see instructions above) or a course package from a textbook publisher, you can import that ZIP file into another existing course shell. See instructions for completing the course import process. This process will only import content and no student data.
Instructors should not try to restore auto-archives to their current courses. Auto-archives imported by instructors will only import content, not student data.
If you need to see a course that has student data and interactions, please submit a Blackboard Learn Ultra Request so the system administrator can assist you in a course Restore.
NOTE: The system administrator has access to archived courses from past course offerings no longer on the live system and are not available to instructors from within the LMS.
Please submit a Blackboard Learn Ultra Request for additional assistance.