Lewis University
Blackboard System Term Management
A program is in place to manage courses within the Blackboard system. This program is necessary for
several reasons:


Lewis University has a contract with Bb Inc. to host our servers (referred to as managed
hosting.) This service has a provision for disk space usage. As our needs increase, so will the fees
assessed for the additional disk storage space. Factors affecting disk space storage include
addition of active courses (includes course materials and submitted work), and the addition of
users. Disk space can be reclaimed by removing courses (via a term removal process).
Managing disk space usage helps to maintain an efficient system.
The following practices are implemented at Lewis University:

Each term introduced into the Bb system has a life cycle within the system. The life cycle
consists of:
o Creation of course shells for that term
o Completion of the term.
 Courses in Bb are considered completed when final grades for all students in the
course are turned in.
 In cases where students are granted incompletes the courses are still
considered active. Students with incompletes are granted extensions to finish
their work. These extensions last no later than 6 weeks into the start of the next
term. For the case of incompletes granted in the spring term, the students have
until 6 weeks into the start of the fall term.
o Once all students with incompletes have completed their work, archives are then
created for each course within the term. An archive stores the course materials used as
well as the student’s work (there are some exceptions on some types of work submitted
where the student’s work will not be retained). These archives are stored here at Lewis
University and can be retrieved at any time.
o Courses within a term will be available for one year after the end of the term. This
period of time allows for the reuse of course materials in subsequent terms.
 For courses that are offered on cycles greater than a year instructors are
encouraged to maintain the materials in a master course shell.
o After one year from the end of the term, the term will be marked for removal from the
Bb system.

Course shells created for other purposes, e.g. workshops, ‘sandboxes’, and master course shells
will be managed on a case by case basis. These course types are also grouped by ‘term’. The
following guidance is used:
o The following additional terms have been defined within Blackboard:
 Master: Used for course shells containing master course materials that are
distributed to working course shells
 Workshops: Used for course shells created for employee development as well as
course shells for student orientation
 Sandbox: Used for course shells created for use in training or development of
course materials.
03MAR17
Lewis University
Blackboard System Term Management
o
o
o

If the course shell is no longer needed and does not need to be archived, then it is
removed.
If the course shell is no longer needed but contains materials that should be retained,
then the course will be archived and then removed.
An archival process will occur on an annual basis for course shells designated in the
following terms:
 Master
 Workshops
Notices will be posted in the Blackboard system no less than two weeks in advance for the
following activities:
o Archiving of courses by term
o Removal of courses by term
The following life cycle schedule is provided for reference. Dates represent the earliest date the activity
may be performed.
Term
2012SP
2012SU
2012FA
2013SP
2013SU
2013FA
2014SP
2014SU
2014FA
2015SP
2015SU
2015FA
2016SP
2016SU
Archive Schedule
Term Removal Schedule
23AUG12*
07OCT12*
05APR13*
SEP13*
17OCT13*
03MAR14*
03MAR15*
27APR15*
28AUG15*
24NOV15*
12DEC15*
22MAR16*
07NOV16
28NOV16
NOV14?
NOV14?
09MAY13*
SEP13*
12DEC13*
15MAR15*
07NOV15*
10FEB16*
05FEB17
08FEB17
12FEB17
05JUN17
25SEP17
(*) – Date completed
Note: Per Bb contract 4 course restore from backups requests can be made per year.
03MAR17