Blackboard Course Backups
Draft
Updated December 21, 2007
The instructions in this document were developed using Microsoft Internet Explorer 7 for
Windows. However, the backup procedures for other browsers are very similar.
CUNY/CIS backup procedures for Blackboard do not allow for the restoration of
individual courses. The CUNY backup is intended to restore the entire collection of
courses in the event of a system-wide failure. There is no CUNY or Lehman College
system backup to restore courses in which all or part of the content is unintentionally
deleted, damaged or otherwise becomes inaccessible. Therefore, instructors are strongly
urged to backup their active Blackboard courses on a regular basis. The backup should
be done at the beginning, at intervals during (perhaps at midterm), and at the end of the
course.
There are two types of backup utilities available to instructors through the Control Panel
within each course: Archive Course and Export Course. Both procedures produce a
single, compressed file (a “package”) on your hard drive in zip format. The file will have
a .zip file extension. The file is not designed to be unzipped on your hard drive. Rather,
the file is designed to be restored as is to Blackboard. (There are techniques and thirdparty utilities to help you extract information from the exported or archived .zip file
stored on your hard drive. These will be covered in updates to this document to be
available early next year.) Of course, neither procedure is a replacement for maintaining
copies of the individual files you upload to Blackboard.
The Export Course procedure is primarily designed to back up the content of the course
such as documents, gradebook items, discussion forum descriptions, and tests. You can
think of Export Course as a way of protecting material you create within Blackboard or
upload to Blackboard - akin to keeping paper copies of your syllabi, lecture notes, and
exam questions. The exported .zip file can be:

imported into an existing Blackboard course to restore lost content

imported into a new course for purposes of teaching a different group of students

copied into a second section of the same course where Instructor Course Merge
Module is not suitable

used to transport a course from one Blackboard installation (e.g. Lehman) to
another (e.g. Hunter College, CUNY BA)

used to exchange course content with another instructor. (To copy between your
own courses on the same Blackboard system, it is easier to use Course Copy.)
The Archive Course procedure produces a complete record of the course including your
content, content created by students (e.g. student discussion board posts, records of
collaboration sessions, digital drop box files) or associated with individual users (e.g.
enrollment, student grades.). Creating an archive is similar to keeping copies of student
exams on file. Generally a course archive would be restored to reexamine student
contributions, for example, in the event of a challenge to a grade. (CUNY stated policy is
to archive courses more than three semesters old, remove those courses from the system
and send the campus copies of the archives. You can assume that courses from the three
previous semesters will be available. The system is designed to accommodate courses
that are offered once a year. For example, spring 2008 instructors can expect to have
courses from spring 2007, summer 2007 and fall 2007 available. Courses archived by
CUNY can be restored to Blackboard upon request.)
Export Course
Click on the Control Panel link from the instructor’s course home page:
Click on Export Course found under Course Options in the lower left of the Control
Panel.
Check the boxes next to the areas of the course you want to include in the backup.
Generally you should include all the areas whether or not you have actually added
content to the areas. Then click on the Submit button.
When the export file is successfully created on the Blackboard server, you will receive a
receipt similar to the following. Right click on the link as directed in order to download
the file to your hard drive.
Click on Save. (Users of browsers other than Internet Explorer for Windows will find
slight variations in the file download procedures.)
Note the filename given to the export file. The name always starts with “ExportFile_”
followed by the course id. Course ids at Lehman look like:
LC_discipline code_course number_section number_semester
For example:
LC_BIO_181_XH81_200709
The extension is always .zip.
In the file Save As dialog box, select a suitable place to store the file. You may want to
create a separate folder to store the export files (e.g. BBBackups). (If you plan to keep
more than one backup of the same course, rename the previous backup before starting
Export Course.)
Archive Course
The archive course procedure is similar.
Click on Archive Course in the instructor’s Control Panel.
Unlike the Export Course procedure, you cannot select areas of the course to include in
the package. The entire course is archived.
Click on the Submit button.
Download and save the archive copy in the same way as instructed for Export Course.
The filename will begin with “ArchiveFile…”
When the archive file is successfully created on the Blackboard server, you will receive a
receipt similar to the following. Right click on the link as directed in order to download
the file to your hard drive.
Note that the filename starts with ArchiveFile_.
Restoring/Importing Course Sections to Blackboard
By invoking the Import Package utility from the Control Panel of the destination course,
an instructor can import all or selected areas from export package to the destination
course.
Archive packages can only be restored to a new course and, therefore, can only be
performed by the Blackboard administrator.
Please contact the IT Help Desk (718 960-1111 or helpdesk@lehman.cuny.edu) for
assistance with either procedure.