Bb Courses 4-6 Years Old to be Archived During WT13 Upgrade

Starting with the Winter 2013 Bb Upgrade on January 4, 2013, DoIT will be "archiving" (not deleting) Blackboard (Bb) courses that are between four (4) and six (6) years old. This will be done at the end of every semester, after grades are due. Archived courses will be maintained by DoIT on a separate archive server not to be used for instruction, and restored to the main production server upon request by an RT ticket from the instructor of record or current chair of the department.

UMBC has been using Blackboard since 2000, but since 2009, DoIT has annually deleted Bb courses seven (7) years or older at the end of the academic year. While this same policy is still in place, our goal with the 4-6 year Bb "archive" is to maintain no more than three (3) years of Bb courses on the main production server available via myUMBC or directly at blackboard.umbc.edu.

The new archive process will help address a growing storage problem that has lengthened the downtime needed for annual upgrades and monthly patches, and also deal with software version incompatibilities between very old and current Bb courses. Blackboard is contractually obliged to assure "backward compatibility" of its software for only two full release versions or five years.

As a result, here is what the production and archive systems will contain after the January 4 Upgrade:

• Bb Production (three years including current semester): All courses created since and including SP2010;
• Bb Archive (four to six years): All courses created between and including WT2010 and FA2006. Available upon request by RT ticket;
  
• Deleted annually (seven years or older): All courses older than FA2006 (last done on 8/24/12).
  

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