Archived Courses

Archived Courses

Older Blackboard courses are periodically removed from the active Blackboard environment as part of YSU’s course retention process. If you need access to a course that is no longer available in your course list, it may still be available in the Blackboard archives.
 

How Long Are Courses Available?
Blackboard SIS courses are generally available to instructors in Blackboard for the current semester plus the previous three semesters. Older courses are removed from the active Blackboard environment according to YSU’s course retention schedule.

Archived course copies are retained for six years from the end of the semester in which the course was offered. For example, a course completed in Spring 2019 would be removed from archives at the end of Spring 2025. 
 

Need Access to an Archived Course?
If a course has been removed from Blackboard but is still within the archive retention period, you can request that it be temporarily restored.

Request an Archived Course Restoration

Once restored, you can access the course to review or retrieve course content and data.


Planning to Reuse Course Content?

If you want to keep a copy of a course for future use, you can also export the course from Blackboard. An exported course creates a .zip file containing course content that can later be imported into another Blackboard course. Blackboard provides instructions for how to export a copy of a course.

Tip: An exported course is best for reusing course content. A Blackboard archive contains additional course information such as users, grades, and course interactions and is primarily intended as a record of the course.

Some programs and accreditation-related needs may have different course retention