Purpose:
The purpose of this policy is to define what CMS data is, where it is stored, how much storage is available, how long the data is retained, and how it is disposed of. As well as provide best practices pertaining to how it should be stored for the longest accessibility.
Policy:
CMS data includes:
- Blackboard Learn course files (live courses, archives, and exports)
- Kaltura media assets (created or uploaded audio/video recordings)
- Webex meeting and webinar recordings
- Blackboard Collaborate session recordings
- Deprecated Tegrity and Sharestream files
Blackboard Learn a.k.a. BbLearn (bblearn.atu.edu)
Blackboard Learn is the university's choice for a Learning Management System (LMS) to host courses online. It is deployed on a Software as a Service (SaaS) platform that utilizes AWS data centers and servers.
Server Storage Allocation - 5 TB
Course File Retention Length - 4 years from course completion (2 on live system & 2 archived)
Course Size Limits – 2 GB
Please Note: A 2 GB Course Size Limit is being implemented to avoid “snowball courses” where large and/or numerous files/folders are included in course copies over and over causing the course size to increase exponentially. Most courses on the live system are generally under 1 GB in size. A notification will be sent to the instructor when the course disk size exceeds 1.5 GB. If you receive this notification, please contact the Campus Support Center for help in reducing your overall course size. For courses that are currently overly excessive in size, the CMS Manager will be reaching out to you to help with this.
Live courses available on BbLearn - current semester plus the past 2 years of completed courses.
(i.e. Spring 2023, plus Spring 2021 - Fall 2022)
Note: At the end of each semester, courses older than 2 years are archived and stored by OIS before they are purged from the live system.
Archived courses available on the OIS archival server - Archive course files are kept available for an additional 2 years on an on-prem server in the ATU data center. (i.e. Spring 2019 – Fall 2020)
Note: These archived courses can be temporarily restored back to the live system for post-completion activities with a request through a CSC support ticket, but they can be expected to be removed at the end of the semester during the next archival/purge.
Best Practices –
Export and Archive
The export course feature creates a ZIP file of your course content that you can import to create a new course. Unlike the archive course feature, the export course feature doesn't include any users or user interactions with the course.
The archive course feature creates a frozen snapshot or permanent record of your course. An archive includes all the content, course statistics, users, and course interactions, such as blog posts, discussions, attendance data, and grades.
Important: If you believe you will ever need future access to a completed course that is beyond the four years mentioned above, or if you would like to have an export or archive file of your course, it is your responsibility to create the export and/or archive files to then be downloaded and stored on your own data storage. It is good practice to create and store these files at the end of each semester.
Instructions on how to do this can be found at: https://help.blackboard.com/Learn/Instructor/Original/Course_Content/Reuse_Content/Export_and_Archive_Courses
Once you create the export/archive files of your course on the live system you have 30 days to download them before they are automatically deleted.
If you ever need one of these archive files restored, or export files imported to a course shell, create a CSC support ticket with your course file attached.
Blackboard Auto-Archive
Each night, Blackboard Learn automatically backs up all courses with activity within the last 7 days. The server creates these course archives automatically at 2 AM system time. To prevent duplication, courses without activity since the last backup are not archived.
This feature is very helpful when something is accidentally deleted from a live course and you need it restored. In these cases, the course can be restored back to the latest backup. If this happens to you, you should immediately make the course unavailable to your students until it is restored so that any student activity after your accidental deletion is not also lost during the restore. To have an auto-archive restored, please submit a CSC support ticket.
Video Files
As video files are generally pretty large in size, which can end up causing a course’s size to become bloated, students and faculty are strongly encouraged to use our Kaltura Video Management System (video.atu.edu) for creating and hosting video files. Videos are then viewed in an embedded player in your course instead of residing in the BbLearn course files and taking up extra space. Kaltura has its own file storage component for these video files.
Kaltura (video.atu.edu)
Kaltura is the university's choice for a Video Management System (VMS) to create/upload and host media assets online. It is deployed on a SaaS platform that utilizes AWS data centers and servers.
Server Storage Allocation - Unlimited for “active” assets
Asset Retention Length - Unlimited for “active” assets
Best Practices –
The Kaltura VMS is the application to use for recording or uploading, storing, and publishing media assets. Players for media assets can be embedded into your courses on BbLearn, made publicly accessible in a gallery on the portal page, or emailed, and the asset files themselves remain on the Kaltura servers (much like YouTube). Our contract provides unlimited storage for so that your video content will remain in Kaltura's cloud indefinitely, though the content must be viewed briefly (10+ seconds) at least once every couple of years. This applies to every individual piece of media you own. Below are the two triggers of which to be aware.
1. If your Kaltura media has not been viewed for 2 years, the entry's flavors will be deleted. The source (the original file that was uploaded to Kaltura) will remain. The system will send you an email warning you that this will occur one week prior to the 2-year mark.
2. If your Kaltura media has not been viewed for 4 years, the entry will be deleted entirely. The system will send you an email warning you that this will occur one week prior to the 4-year mark.
Due to this ability for a media asset to always remain accessible as long as it’s being accessed, Kaltura is the de facto method of long-term storage for media assets you intend to use for longer than one semester. A media asset could be; a presentation or a quick how-to video using Express Capture or Kaltura Capture, or a full lecture capture recording using Kaltura Classroom, Webex, or Collaborate.
More information on Kaltura can be found at https://support.atu.edu/support/search?term=kaltura
Webex (webex.atu.edu)
Cisco Webex is the university's choice for a Unified Communications (UC) collaboration platform to provide capabilities including online meetings, team messaging, and file sharing. It is deployed on a SaaS platform that utilizes Cisco data centers and servers.
Server Storage Allocation - Unlimited
Recording Retention Length – 1 Year
Best Practices –
Cisco Webex is the standard for web conferencing at ATU. Our contract allows for an unlimited amount of storage for conference recordings, however, these recordings are deleted in a FIFO manner from their system one year after their creation, regardless of their amount of usage. Webex recordings meant to be used longer than a single semester should be exported from Webex and then imported/uploaded to Kaltura and hosted from there.
Collaborate Ultra (accessible only via a course in BbLearn)
Collaborate Ultra is a separate product from Blackboard that has been bundled with our Learn contract as a web conferencing solution that incorporates directly into the Learn courses. It is deployed on a SaaS platform that utilizes AWS data centers and servers.
Server Storage Allocation: 1 TB
Recording Retention Length - 1 year
Best Practices –
Blackboard Collaborate recordings are stored on separate servers from the Learn LMS and have limited storage capacity. Due to the increased usage of web conferencing in the classrooms, a new policy must be put in place that allows for only one year of retention of Collaborate recordings. Collaborate recordings meant to be used longer than a single semester should be exported from Collaborate and then imported/uploaded to Kaltura and hosted from there.
Tegrity/ShareStream (no longer available as of 12/2019)
In December 2019, prior to the transition from Tegrity and ShareStream to Kaltura, all recordings on those systems were migrated to archival storage, with the more recent of those items being uploaded to Kaltura and assigned to their content owners. As these old archived Tegrity/ShareStream recordings are now over 4 years old, they are to be permanently deleted from the archival storage soon.
Last updated: 3/2/2023