Blackboard Courses from 2023 to be Archived on May 27, 2026

Summary

Export or archive your Blackboard courses from Spring, Summer and Fall 2023 semesters to maintain access to course content.

Full Description

W&M retains academic Blackboard courses less than two years old.  At the end of every semester, Blackboard courses two years old and older will be archived by Blackboard. We are unable to process individual exceptions to this policy to ensure your course is not archived. We recommend exporting content you need either for your own safekeeping or copying as a non-academic course. 

To address this issue, academic courses in Blackboard taught in Spring, Summer, and Fall 2023 semesters will be archived. This archive process will take place on May 27, 2026. 

For faculty, we recommend archiving or exporting a copy of your courses for easy access. For students, we recommend saving files individually from courses.  

The Blackboard archive process will impact academic courses only (excluding Law School). Dossiers and non-academic courses will not be impacted at this time.   

For Faculty: Export/Archive Instructions 

• An archive copy of a course provides a snapshot of the course (including student data and grades).  
• An exported copy of the course does not include student data but provides a copy of the content that can be imported back into Blackboard for a future course.  

Follow the step-by-step instructions for archiving and exporting your course content today to save any records you need. 

 Important!  

If you plan to import your course into Blackboard, do not open the downloaded .zip file from the export process as it may corrupt the data. Make a duplicate copy prior to opening and/or download two versions of the .zip file, if you anticipate the need to open the export.  

Moving Forward 

Blackboard Original courses will be phased out by December 2026. The timeline for this process is as follows: 

• December 31, 2026: End of Life for Original Courses 
• January 1, 2027: Blackboard will automatically convert any Original courses (both academic and non-academic) courses to Read Only Mode. Instructors and students can still access the course content to view but can no longer participate and make edits.  
• January 1, 2028: Blackboard will automatically convert Original courses (both academic and non-academic) to the Ultra experience.  

Academic courses from Fall 2024 on are in the Ultra experience and will subsequently follow the retention policy subject to being achieved in 2028.  

Questions? 

Contact the Technology Support Center (TSC) 
757-221-4357 (HELP) | support@wm.edu | Monday - Friday, 8:00 am - 5:00 pm