Attention eClass users,

CTL is currently investigating all potential system or process changes that may help to improve long-term system performance, scalability and sustainability in eClass. Outside of infrastructure improvements (which are handled by our hosting provider), the primary strategy that CTL can employ to improve system performance is to reduce the size of the eClass database. To that end, we are now planning to move forward with the course archiving process in eClass. Our short-term goal is to implement an initial phase of the archiving process before Fall term 2014 to have a meaningful impact on the eClass database size. The Centre for Teaching and Learning has received approval from the eClass Change Advisory Board (CAB) to implement this process beginning in August 2014.

Below, we have posted a series of questions and answers to outline the process for archiving eClass courses. If you have any further questions that you would like us to clarify or expand on, please send them to ctl@ualberta.ca.

eClass Course Archive FAQ

Why do we want to introduce an archiving process in eClass?

The archiving process will have 2 primary benefits:

1. Reduction of eClass database size, which will:

1. Improve system performance

2. Increase long-term sustainability

2. Removal of courses on eClass, which will:

1. Clean up user class lists to remove old courses. This will be especially useful for users with a large number of courses in their class lists.

2. Clean up categories and course hierarchies for eClass administrators.

What will the archiving process do?

The proposed archiving process will remove from eClass all credit courses that are 2 years + 1 term old (and older for the first round). These courses will be fully removed from the system and users will no longer have access to them. However, this process will be reversible. After a course has been archived, instructors will be able to request a restoration of an archived course back onto eClass.

Will archived course content be accessible online?

No. Once a course is archived it is completely removed from eClass. Instructors will still have the option to copy any previous course forward when creating new courses, which will include any archived courses. These will be listed in the eClass course creation system as content sources available to copy into new courses.  

How long will my archived course be available?

Archived courses for content copy will be available for a full 3 years after the date of archiving. This means that the total time that a course will able to be re-used after it has run will be 5 years.

How will we let people know about archiving?

CTL has started a comprehensive communication plan to let all eClass instructors know about the upcoming changes. Instructors will be notified:

• From directly within eClass via a notification on the Course Overview block

• From the eClass login page in the CTL News Support Blog

• From targeted emails that will be sent to all instructors that are enrolled in a course that meets archiving criteria.

Each of these notification methods will be used multiple times between now and the official date of the archiving process to ensure that users are well informed of the coming change. All instructors will have the ability to request a restoration of an archived section back onto the eClass production server.

What is the timeline for the archiving project?

CTL will begin the first round of archiving in late August 2014 to archive courses from Spring term 2012 and older.

What courses will be affected by the Archiving process?

Only credit courses from Spring term 2012 and older will be affected for the first archive. This includes any courses requested using the online course creation system for credit courses with student enrollments from Bear Tracks. All non-credit courses (sandboxes, template sections, resource courses etc) on eClass will not be affected.

Will instructors be able to select and archive additional courses that do not meet the current archiving criteria?

Allowing instructors to actively select and queue specific courses for archiving is a feature we would like to include for future versions of the archiving process. For now, archiving will be limited to the set selection criteria (credit courses 2 years + 1 term old) in order to clean up the system and remove the desired proportion of old sections from the database.

Will user data remain intact within archived courses?

Yes, courses will all be backed up with user data to ensure that courses can be restored exactly as they were on eClass prior to archiving.

If my course is archived and I can’t see it, how can I check to make sure it has the content I want before I copy content into my new course?

If at any time a user needs to access their archived course, they can send CTL an email with their course details to request that it be restored back onto eClass.

What if there are multiple instructors in a course and some would like to restore an archived course and some would not?

All courses in which at least one instructor has elected to restore an archived course will be restored. Any instructors who wish to be removed from a restored course can contact CTL to make any necessary changes to their enrollment in the course.

If you have any questions about the upcoming archiving process in eClass and how it will affect you, please contact CTL at ctl@ualberta.ca.

Regards,

CTL Technology Services