Course Storage & Deletion

Beginning in July 2025, eLearning Commons (eLC) courses that are five years or older will begin to be purged from eLC. This will affect courses generated by Athena (UGA’s student information system) and non-Athena courses in eLC. Instructors will be notified in advance if their courses are in scope to be purged.

This new University System of Georgia (USG) policy, approved in January 2025, will provide optimal system performance, ensure that contractual obligations are met, and maintain the security and privacy of eLC data.

Key Takeaways

Click on the questions below for additional information and support.

Which courses will be removed?

Courses will be deleted in two waves: the first in July 2025 and the second in November 2025. Users in the role of instructor in each targeted course will be notified via email at least sixty days prior to course deletion.

July 2025 Deletions

See our searchable list of all courses slated to be deleted in July 2025* to discover impacted courses. You will need to sign in with your UGA Microsoft account to access the report.

This list was created in February 2025 and includes the following types of courses:

  • All courses assigned to a semester prior to Fall 2019.
  • Fall 2019 courses with either no end date set, or an end date prior to January 1, 2020.
  • Spring 2020 courses with no end date set.

Most courses on this first list are Athena courses. However, non-Athena courses assigned to a regular "semester" in eLC (e.g., "Summer 2017") may also be part of this dataset. To check the semester associated with a specific course, navigate to Course Admin then Course Offering Information in that course.

November 2025 Deletions

An additional set of (primarily non-Athena) courses will be removed from the system in November 2025. This list of courses was also created in February 2025.

The courses on this list are assigned to a non-standard semester and match one of the following criteria:

  • End date prior to January 1, 2020.
  • No end date set, were created prior to January 1, 2020, and were last accessed (by a student, intsructor, or eLC administrator account) prior to January 1, 2020.

More information about courses on this list will be available soon.

*Retiree accounts and individuals not currently working at UGA may not be able to access the list of courses linked above, as it is tied to Office 365 access through the use of Power BI. If you are unable to access the list and are no longer an active faculty member, staff, or student, please reach out to us via LearnTech@uga.edu for support. Others who cannot access the list should contact EITS for help with their account.

What's the timeline for removal?

Courses assigned to a regular semester in eLC (primarily Athena courses) will be removed from the system in July 2025. Non-Athena courses will be removed in November 2025.

Action Athena Courses Non-Athena Courses
Course instructors notified via email March 2025 Summer 2025
Last date to access courses May 31, 2025 September 30, 2025
Instructors removed from targeted courses June 2025 October 2025
Courses permanently removed from eLC July 2025 November 2025

 

Any course contents or materials should be exported or downloaded to another location prior to June 2025 (for courses slated for removal in July 2025) and October 2025 (for remaining courses).

What, precisely, will be deleted?

When a course is deleted, all course files, student grades, and student work will be permanently removed from the system. This will include all content pages, uploaded documents, hyperlinks, gradebook contents, discussion boards, submitted assignments and quizzes, course announcements, and so on. Materials hosted elsewhere (e.g., Kaltura videos) will not be impacted. Note that uploaded videos stored in the course files section of a course will be deleted when a the course is removed (navigate to Course Admin >> Manage Files to see a list of items stored as course files).

Are there policies about which course materials must be retained?

The University System of Georgia has established retention schedules for student records. The Course Records schedule (#0472-05-005) and the Course & Class Records schedule (#0472-06-008) are particularly relevant for your retention of records related to teaching.

Before course shells are deleted from eLC, you should make sure the following items are stored elsewhere:

  • Retained for 7 years after the point at which the course is no longer offered:
    • course announcements
    • handout materials
  • Retained permanently:

The following course materials must also be retained for 7 years after the point at which a course is no longer offered, but they should already be saved through UGA's syllabus system and/or the Course Approval Process Automation (CAPA) system:

  • course syllabus
  • course description
  • course outline
How do I preserve course materials or contents prior to course deletion?

Course Materials

Most of your course materials can be downloaded into a .zip file by following these steps:

  1. Open your target course and click on Course Admin in the course navigation bar.
  2. Select Import/Export/Copy Components.
  3. Choose Export as Brightspace Package.*
  4. Select All Components.
  5. Click Continue and Export.
  6. Download the .zip file and save to a UGA-maintained computer and/or a UGA OneDrive, Sharepoint, or Google Drive account.

*The Brightspace Package export option is your most complete export option for courses. The resulting .zip file will include all materials that have been uploaded to the course, as well as Brightspace-specific .xml files. The .xml files can be viewed by importing the .zip file into a new course shell in eLC (use the same instructions as found here, but instead select Import and import from a file).

Student Work

Student submissions and grades are not included in the main course export package. Use the following sets of instructions to download those materials from a specific course:

Download Student Assignment Submissions

  1. In your target course, navigate to Assignments and open the desired assignment.
  2. Select the checkbox for any assignments you wish to download.
  3. Click Download (above the list of students).
  4. In the pop-up box, when the .zip file is ready, click Download.
  5. Save the file to a UGA-maintained computer and/or a UGA OneDrive, Sharepoint, or Google Drive account.

Completed Student Quizzes

  1. Open your target course and go to Course Admin > Quizzes.
  2. Click the dropdown menu next to the quiz you need and select Grade.
  3. Select all student attempts or filter specific students.
  4. Click Export to CSV or Export to Excel to download quiz responses.
  5. Save the exported file to a UGA-maintained computer and/or a UGA OneDrive, Sharepoint, or Google Drive account.

Student Grades

A Note about Videos

 Video files that were uploaded and stored as course files will be included in .zip file generated by a Brightspace Package export (see above). To view and download from a list of individual course files,  navigate to Course Admin and then to Manage Files.

Videos stored in Kaltura will remain available through Kaltura and need not be downloaded from your course. Videos saved in the media library will not be removed at this time.  You can access them in a new course by following these steps:

  1. Open a new course where you want to use the video.
  2. Navigate to the Content tool.
  3. In a new module, click the Existing Activities button.
  4. Select Media Library from the options.
  5. Browse and select your previously uploaded videos associated with your eLC account.

The Media Library content is also accessible via Insert Stuff button in an HTML Editor.

How do I request that a specific course be retained instead of being deleted?

To make this request, complete our Course Retention Request Form no later than May 15, 2025. The CTL and EITS will review requests, and coordinate with the University System of Georgia where exceptions are warranted. We will communicate with you about your request via the email address you provide in our form.

Can I request deletion of additional eLC courses?

To make this request, complete our Course Deletion Request Form. This list will be reviewed periodically, and users enrolled in the instructor and/or course administrator role will be contacted to confirm the request prior to its removal from the system.

Note that this option is not available for courses associated with the current or previous academic year. 

What if I need more help?

For more support, please reach out to your unit's primary eLC support personnel: