VLE Content Management, Retention and Disposal

for The VLE Content Retention and Disposal Schedule sets out the principles and requirements for managing Blackboard content in line with the University Records Management Policy.

Some of the key points relating to Blackboard Courses are summarised below.

• The virtual learning environment exists to support teaching, learning and the student experience, not collaboration and content management in general.
• Students should have access to their courses for the duration of their studies, so they can refer back to course content and feedback provided by markers; i.e. Blackboard courses should not be made ‘unavailable’ when delivery ends.
• Courses should be preserved as an academic record once they are completed.
• Courses are retained by DTS in accordance with OfS requirements:
  • for 5 years after the year in which  the course was delivered
  • plus a further 1 year buffer
  • and then only deleted if there are no longer active students on the module or programme in RISIS.
• Courses are initially retained inside the VLE, subsequently as archive copies, and then deleted:
  • For the first three years of the retention period, course records will remain on the system, as a reference copy directly viewable by those who had a role in the course while it was active (students and staff).
  • For the remaining years of the retention period, course records will be held as an archive copy.
    Access to an archived course will be provided in response to a legitimate query.
  • At the end of the retention period course records will be removed entirely from any containing system and securely destroyed.
• See the Schedule for full details, with worked examples of applicable retention periods.

Key points concerning Blackboard Organisations include:

• All organisations must have a nominated owner, who is a current employee.
• All organisations should be time bound and are provided for an agreed subscription term in response to a legitimate request.
  Organisations will expire at the end of their subscription term, but may be renewed.
• Requests for organisation spaces may be refused if not related to teaching and learning or the student experience. Requests may also be refused if an alternate digital platform (e.g. MS Teams) is more suitable for meeting the requirement.

Timetable

Archiving and deletion of courses will normally take place in the last full working week of August each year.

As an example, at the end of August 2021 DTS will

• archive Blackboard courses from the 2016/17 year
• delete previously archived Blackboard courses from the 2012/13 year.