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End of Semester Blackboard Checklist

Blackboard courses are removed from the server approximately one year after the end of the semester in which they are taught. Saving your Blackboard course materials on your computer allows you to reuse the materials by importing them to a new Blackboard course at a later date. If these records are stored on Blackboard, we strongly recommend that you retain a local copy. In addition, CUNY record keeping policies require that you retain certain class records for specified periods of time. To read more, please consult the CUNY Policies or to learn more about Hunter College Blackboard Policies.

This document contains information and recommendations that will assist you in wrapping up the semester and will help you prepare for using Blackboard in future semesters. These recommendations are outlined below:

	Export/archive your Blackboard course Exporting/archiving your course will create a compressed (.zip) file containing your course materials. If you wish to reuse all or some of your materials in a future semester, you can import this .zip file into a new course shell on Blackboard. You can also view this file on your computer by using a special free tool called bFree, which will extract most of the content from a Blackboard course "Export" or "Archive" zip file; however, some Blackboard content, such as full discussion board threads, cannot be viewed with bFree. To learn more about the uses and limitations of bFree, please see our document About bFree. NOTE: If you would like to have easy access to selected student work (e.g., blogs, wikis, discussion board postings, and other assignments) on your local computer, we recommend downloading it separately from the Blackboard export/archive file. For more information about downloading assignments, see Retrieving and Grading Assignments. To learn more about exporting wikis, see our animated tutorial. For further guidance, please consult with Blackboard Support.
	Post end of the semester grades for students Even if you have not used the Blackboard Grade Center throughout the semester, you can use it to post final course grades so that students can review them in advance of posting to WebGrade. In order to upload your final Grades to the Grade Center, please view our document on Downloading and Uploading Data from the Grade Center. To learn more about managing which grades students are able to view, see our document on Managing the Student View of the Grade Center
	Preserve and print your Grade Center spreadsheet CUNY policy requires that you keep a record of student grades for two years after the course has ended. If you use Blackboard's Grade Center to record student grades, we strongly recommend downloading the grade data to your local computer frequently over the course of the semester and retaining a local copy of the final Grade Center data. Instructions for downloading Grade Center data can be found in our document Downloading and Uploading Your Grade Center.
	Print a copy of your final exam if it was given in Blackboard In accordance with CUNY record retention policy, faculty should ensure that they retain copies of Blackboard exam questions and answers for one year after the course ends. If you created your final exam using Blackboard’s Assessment Manager, we suggest that you print a copy of the questions and export the exam via the Test Manager.
	Make "fair use" copyrighted course material unavailable Copyrighted materials used under "fair use" (i.e., for which you or the library have not obtained specific permission to use) should be made available to your class only for limited periods of time. Blackboard areas containing these materials should be made unavailable at the end of the semester. Guidelines for working with copyrighted material can be found on the Hunter Library web site: http://library.hunter.cuny.edu/copyright.htm .

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End of Semester Blackboard Checklist