Back to Options in the Control Panel

Archive Course

Why?

This tool creates a permanent record of the course, including all user interactions.

Implications for Teaching and Learning.

It makes sense to keep some record of user interactions during the course. If grades are challenged, not all information pertinent to the standing of the student is available through the gradebook. If you use the tools within Blackboard for communication between you and the students, this is saved when you archive. This permanent record of the course serves as a portion of your documentation for the course. The file is saved as a .zip file so it is compact and easy to store on your local machine. This archive also serves as additional protection for you in case the technology fails and you need to restore all parts of a course.

Setting it Up.

1. Go to Control Panel/ Course Options/ Archive Course

2. Select Archive to archive the course contents and save it for future use.

3. On the resulting page, you will see information on which course you have chosen to archive.  At this point you click Submit. 

4. You will receive a message letting you know that Blackboard has queued your course to be archived.  You will receive an email once the archive file is ready.

5. Once you receive email notification, go back into Archive Course through the Control Panel.  You will now see an available archive file.  An archived course will say "ArchiveFile" followed by the course ID, date, and the file extension .zip. 

6. To save the file: 

• Select an area on your computer to save the file.
• Right click on the file information. 
• Select "Save As" and browse for where you want to save the file. 
• Rename the file, or accept the default name. 
• Click Save.

You can now save your archive along with other information from your class. 

Back to Options in the Control Panel