Learning Management System Course Retention Policy

Official learning management system (LMS) courses generated by our student information system (SIS) or any other courses with students enrolled shall be subject to removal from the system seven years following the end of the semester in which they are taught (for example, a course taught in fall 2015 will be permanently and irreversibly removed at the end of December 2022). Other manually created learning management system courses, often referred to as work-in-progress or model sites, are subject to permanent and irreversible removal following four years of inactivity. Instructor(s) shall be notified via email at least thirty days in advance of any course removal which will give an opportunity to save any important documents or data to locations outside of the LMS.

Course Retention Policy FAQ

Why do we need to remove older courses from our learning management system?
- System health: UM-Dearborn adopted Canvas as its’ official LMS in summer 2013. Since that time, the number of courses and storage space used has grown to unsustainable levels. Users with large course lists, especially instructors, may face performance and functionality issues.
- Privacy and security: Data should be retained in accordance with the University’s document retention best practices, which are rooted in retaining data for a specified period of time.
- The LMS is not designed, equipped, nor contracted to be long term or unlimited storage.
What content will not be removed from the LMS?
- Video or other content stored in third party services integrated with the LMS (e.g. My Media, Media Gallery, Mediasite Creation Tool, etc). This content will remain in 3rd party storage, subject to the retention policies of these services.
- Courses generated by our student information system (SIS) or any other courses with students enrolled offered in the past seven years. For example, as of January 2022, courses offered in Winter 2015 or later would not be subject to removal.
- Other manually created learning management system courses that have been accessed in the past four years.
When will the courses be removed?
- Courses generated by our student information system (SIS) or any other courses with students enrolled will be removed seven years after the official end date for the semester in which the course was offered.
- Other manually created learning management system courses, often referred to as work-in-progress (WIP) or model sites, will be removed following four years of inactivity. Any user listed as a teacher in one of these courses may make a request to the unit’s LMS Support Personnel to have it removed earlier.
Can removed courses or content be recovered?
- Once a course has been removed through this policy, the course or associated content will not be recoverable.
How do instructors save course content?
- Save Content from a Canvas Course. Please note that these methods only save course content. Methods for saving student data (names, assignment submissions, grades, etc.) are below.
  - Export all course content to an imscc zip file
  - Request a work-in-progress (WIP) site via the college’s Canvas Support Personnel. One WIP site may be requested for each instructor/course. For example, Professor X can have one WIP site for HIST-101 and another for POL-350, but may not have multiple HIST-101 sites.
  - Share to Canvas commons
  - Bulk download content from the Canvas Files area.
  - Once data is saved, it may be retained on a local system or U-M Dropbox or U-M Google Drive for longer term cloud storage.
- Save Student Data from a Canvas Course
  - Student grades can be saved by exporting the gradebook to a CSV file.
  - Student submissions can be saved by bulk downloading via the grades area.
  - Once data is saved, it may be retained on a local system or U-M Dropbox or U-M Google Drive for longer term cloud storage.
How do students save course work?
- At the conclusion of each semester, students should save any course work or materials they wish to retain in a location outside of the LMS, such as a local system or U-M Dropbox or U-M Google Drive for longer term cloud storage. Students will find their submitted files in the user files area of Canvas.
How long are UM-Dearborn instructors required to keep student work?
- Any data that personally identifies a student and is housed in LMS or other platforms is likely part of a student’s “education record,” which is governed by the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act. Student education records should be retained for 7 years after a student separates from the University (graduates, withdraws, etc). When producing a transcript, the final grades submitted to the Student Information System by the instructor are considered official. Data in the Student Information System is not subject to this LMS Course Retention Policy.
How was the policy developed?
- This policy was drafted in accordance with U-M best practices with regard to data retention and with discussion in the UM-Dearborn University Curriculum and Degree Committee Digital Education Subcommittee, which includes faculty representatives from across campus. The policy was reviewed by the Registrar and approved by the University Curriculum and Degree Committee on 3/31/2022