Make Your Course Unavailable (MANDATORY)

After the semester has ended and students have had time to check their final grade — but before the next semester begins — you should make your course unavailable. This prevents students from logging in or “seeing” your course in their list of courses. You will still have access to the course. If you have allowed incompletes in your course, do not perform this procedure or students will not be able to complete and submit their Blackboard assignments. Before you begin archiving, you should make your course unavailable to your students. This will prevent any changes to the data or conflicts that may occur if a student with an "I" is adding/deleting content (e.g., Digital Drop Box, Discussion Board, Online Quiz) while you are archiving.

1. Go to the Control Panel.
2. Click Settings (found under Course Options).
3. Click Course Availability.
4. Select No and click Submit.
5. A receipt will appear confirming that your course is unavailable. Click OK.
6. Click the Control Panel link at the top of the screen to continue to the next step.

Export Gradebook (MANDATORY)

The export feature will export the columns, rows, and values of your gradebook into a CSV file that can be easily opened and edited in a spreadsheet program such as Microsoft Excel. It is strongly recommended that you take exports of your gradebook at regular intervals during the semester. Keeping a copy of your gradebook is a good idea for backup and archival purposes because once students are removed or "un-enrolled" from a Blackboard course, their grades are also removed from the gradebook.

1. From the Control Panel click Gradebook (found under Assessment).
2. Click Download Grades.
3. A new screen will appear asking you to select a delimiter. Select Comma and then click Submit.
4. After a few moments of processing, a screen will appear with directions for downloading the gradebook. Below the directions click Download.
5. A Download File dialog box will appear. Click Save to continue.
6. Select a location for your gradebook.
7. The default name of the document, "gb_export.csv," isn't very descriptive, and every time you export, Blackboard will give the file that same name. Rename your file for easier recall, for example, the course id followed by the semester (i.e., CIS111-S05).
8. Click Save to complete the download process.
9. Click OK to continue.

Saving Discussion Board Forums (OPTIONAL)

1. From the Control Panel click Discussion Boards (found under Course Tools).
2. Select a Forum to archive.
3. Click the Show Options button on the right side of the screen.
4. Click Select All.
5. Click Collect to gather all the discussion threads into a neatly organized page.
6. Once your threads have been gathered, you have two (2) options for saving your forum:
   1. Make a Hard Copy
      1. Open the File Menu.
      2. Select Print to print your forum.
   2. Copy & Paste Text to Microsoft Word
      1. Select all the text from your collected threads.
      2. Copy the text by pressing <Ctrl> + C.
      3. Open a Microsoft Word Document.
      4. Paste the text into the Word Document by pressing <Ctrl> + V.
      5. Save the Microsoft Word Document.
7. Click OK to continue.
8. Repeat #2 through #7 for each forum in your Blackboard Course.

Archiving Your Course (OPTIONAL)

Archive Course creates a permanent record of a course including all the content and user interactions. Archived Courses are a permanent record of the course. Archived courses are saved as .zip files. Archiving a course does not remove it from the system. Archiving your course is the same as making a backup of your course and storing the backup file(s) on your own local hard drive, floppy disk, Zip disk, or CD. It is always a good idea to keep a backup of important data and information. Archived course files can only be restored by the Blackboard Administrator. Even if you Archive your course you still need to perform the above procedures so that you can access the information.

1. From the Control Panel click Archive Course (found under Course Options).
2. A screen will appear displaying the Course ID of the course you wish to archive. Click Submit.
3. After a few moments of processing, you will be presented with a receipt and an opportunity to download your archived course. Click Click here to download the generated package file.
4. A Download File dialog box will appear. Click Save to continue.
5. Select a location for your archived course.
6. The suggested file name includes the Course ID. Simply add the semester at the end for easier recall.
7. Click Save to complete the download process.
8. Click Control Panel link at the top of the screen.