Canvas Archive Policy
Compliance with the General Retention Schedule
To improve the management of Penn State’s Learning Management System, Canvas, and to comply with the University’s gradebook retention policy, Penn State IT has established an archiving policy affecting all users of Canvas, including faculty, students, and staff. GURU policy reference: General Retention Schedule (formerly Appendix 18) states in the “Student Records” section that gradebooks must be retained for five (5) years after course completion.
Archiving Communication
Penn State IT will post a global announcement and reminders in Canvas at least two weeks prior to the beginning of each archiving process. This announcement will include links to relevant knowledge base articles for instructors who may wish to manually delay the archival process.
LionPATH Course Archiving Policy
This archiving policy for LionPATH courses in Canvas defines what material is archived, what material is not archived, which material may be restored, the archival timeline, and the method through which self-restoration is available.
Definition
LionPATH courses are those for which students register through Penn State’s student’s information system.
LionPATH Course Material Included in Archive or Self-Restored Courses
-
- Gradebooks, in compliance with the University’s General Retention Schedule (formerly Appendix 18) are archived for five (5) years from the last day of the course. After five (5) years from the date of course completion, gradebooks are no longer available.
- Course Material means course-level data. This consists of data which is stored as part of the core Canvas feature set including student enrollments, grades, discussions, quizzes, and other items in the vendor’s Canvas database.
- The archiving process is intended to archive gradebooks in compliance with the University’s General Retention Schedule.
- The method of retaining and keeping course material is to house such material in a Master Course rather than the archive. Canvas: Request a Master Course, KB0011048
LionPATH Course Material NOT Included in Archive or Self-Restored Courses
-
- Integrations, LTIs, or plugins
- Items linked to or stored on other websites or platforms
- Items hosted on other storage platforms (e.g. files on local personal storage devices, OneDrive, Box, Kaltura, or any other PSU-provided or third-party hosted storage platform)
Lion-PATH Courses Archive Schedule
LionPATH courses will remain available and visible in Canvas for a period of one (1) year after the end of the academic semester in which the course was offered.
LionPATH courses will be flagged for archival, then archived by default at the end of this one-year period. The flagging will be communicated and allow enough time for those with the teacher or course admin role to opt-out of archiving.
The archive schedule is as follows:
-
- Fall semester courses – On or about January 15
- Spring semester courses – On or about May 15
- Summer semester courses – On or about September 15
LionPATH Course Archival Timeline, Opting-out, and Restoration Process
According to the University’s General retention schedule, gradebooks must be retained for five (5) years after course completion. This timeline explains the archiving process on a year-by-year basis from the date of course completion.
Year 1
LionPATH courses will remain available and visible in Canvas for a period of one (1) year after the end of the academic semester in which the course was offered.
The one-year time frame is sufficient to resolve grade corrections or deferred grades based on Faculty Senate policies 48-30 and 48-40, respectively.
Years 2 and 3
One year after the end of the semester in which courses were offered, i.e. at the beginning of Year 2 of the archive timeline, LionPATH courses will be flagged for archiving by default and removed from Canvas according to the schedule above.
Opting-out
When a LionPATH course is flagged for archival, users with the teacher or course admin role in a Canvas course may temporarily delay this archiving process.
Teachers or course admins may manually delay archival for additional semesters by opting out up to six (6) times, or a maximum of two (2) years. After two (2) years, the course will be archived with no further manual delay possible. Please refer to knowledge base article Opt-Out of Course Archiving KB0012633 for details and instructions.
Self-Restoration
During years 2 and 3, if a LionPATH course has been archived, users with the teacher or course admin role may self-restore that course. Please refer to knowledge base article Self-restore an Archived Course KB0012635 for instructions on how to self-restore archived courses using the Course Archive Manager in Canvas.
NOTE: If any one of the designated teachers or course admins elects to restore the course, the course will be restored for all teachers and course admins.
Years 4 and 5
Courses will remain in long-term storage for a period of two (2) years. There are no exceptions to prevent a course from being placed in long-term storage.
Teachers or course admins can request the course content or grades from a course in long-term storage through the Penn State IT Service Desk.
The course content will only be copied to a new manually created course where it will be available to the requester. Submissions and grades will not be copied to the new course. Other information including grades can be requested through the Penn State IT Service Desk, but the original course will not be accessible to the teachers or course admins.
After Year 5
After the course has been in long-term storage for two (2) years, it will be permanently removed from Canvas. This includes all course content, submissions, grades, and user activity.
The permanent course deletion after five (5) years maintains compliance with the General Retention Schedule.
Please refer to the Penn State Knowledge Base article on Canvas: Long-Term Archival Storage for more information.
Non-LionPATH Course Archiving Policy
This archiving policy for non-LionPATH courses defines what material is archived, what material is not archived, which material may be restored, and the timeline in which restoration is available.
Definition
Non-LionPATH courses includes Master Courses, Manually Created Courses, Prides, and Sandboxes.
Non-LionPATH Course Material Included in Archive or Self-Restored Courses
-
- Gradebooks, in compliance with the University’s General Retention Schedule (formerly Appendix 18) are archived for five (5) years from the last day of the course. After five (5) years from the date of course completion, gradebooks are no longer available.
- Course Material means course-level data. This consists of data which is stored as part of the core Canvas feature set including student enrollments, grades, discussions, quizzes, and other items in the vendor’s Canvas database.
Non-LionPATH Course Material NOT Included in Archive or Self-Restored Courses
-
- Integrations, LTIs, or plugins
- Items linked to or stored on other websites or platforms
- Items hosted on other storage platforms (e.g. files on local personal storage devices, OneDrive, Box, Kaltura, or any other PSU-provided or third-party hosted storage platform)
Non-LionPATH Archive Schedule
All non-LionPATH courses will be archived once per year, regardless of how recently the course was initially created. The archiving of non-LionPATH courses schedule is as follows:
-
- Flagging of all non-LionPATH courses for archiving – Late Fall Semester
- Archiving of all non-LionPATH courses – On or about January 15
Non-LionPATH Archival Flagging
All Non-LionPATH courses are flagged for archival once per calendar year. Non-LionPATH courses are flagged for archival regardless of how recently they may have been created.
Non-LionPATH Opting-out
After a non-LionPATH course is flagged for archival, teachers and course admins will have the opportunity to opt individual courses out of the archiving process.
Non-LionPATH courses are flagged for archival each year and must be opted out of archiving every year.
Non-LionPath courses may be opted out of archiving indefinitely.
Non-LionPATH Restoration Process
If a non-LionPATH course has been archived, users with the teacher or course admin role may self-restore that course. Please refer to knowledge base article
