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WebCT Course Archiving Policy

Reinstalling a Course

Back-up Options

Backing up to the WebCT Server

Backing up to your Local Computer

WebCT Course Archiving Policy

The WebCT Course Listing area is available to house only current and future courses, clearly indicating course name, ticket number, instructor, and term date. All other courses will be housed in a separate active archive available to instructors but not to students. Faculty can request to copy a course, or make the course available to students (moving it to the main listing area) at any time by contacting the WebCT administrator, by completing the online WebCT Template Request Form.

Each term courses not currently in use will be moved to a separate WebCT Active Archive area accessible to instructors through a unique url. The Active Archive allows instructors to have access to their previously used courses for viewing, backing up, and/or limited development. While developing a course in the active archive is possible, it is not encouraged due to the slower processing capacity of this server in comparison to the main WebCT server. WebCT courses will be housed in the active archive area for the period of at least 1 year. If an instructor is planning on reusing a course, they need to complete the online WebCT Template Request Form.  ITS will then rename and restore the course to the WebCT Course Listing area within 2 working days of receiving the request. Although archiving past or no longer in use courses creates two different areas for which faculty will need to be aware of, it will ensure that the WebCT interface and tools are most effectively utilized for current course development and usage.

Please note that instructors wishing to have a WebCT course template but are not planning on using the course in the near term, will still be able to request a WebCT course template using the ticket number 0000.  By doing this, they will be provided a WebCT course template that is accessible from the main WebCT Course Listing area for easy development.  At the beginning of each term, all instructors with WebCT courses ticket number 0000, will be contacted to determine if the course is ready to go live.  If it is, the WebCT administrator will rename the course using the appropriate conventions. Also, if an instructor wishes to maintain their course/s on the main WebCT server for development purposes, they would need to respond to this notification and the WebCT administrator will rename the course either with the new ticket number or 0000 for development.

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Reinstalling a Course:

Instructors who would like to make an archived course available for the current term, need to complete the WebCT Template Request Form which will ask for name, date, and ticket number of the course previously taught. Once the form is completed and submitted online, the WebCT administrator will restore the course to the main WebCT area within 2 working days.

Because courses are archived for the period of at least 1 year, an instructor who wishes to make a course active after this time frame, will need to provide the backup of the course to the WebCT administrator. Please see the information below on how to backup a course.

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Back-up Options:

ITS encourages that each faculty member using WebCT backup their course/s locally rather than just on the main or archive server. By doing this, an instructor is able to keep as many copies of their course as they like, within their computers storage limits. Additionally, an instructor can readily access the backup course instead of relying on ITS. Instructors can backup their course to their local desktop at any time, whether the course is live or in the active archive, by following the directions below. Additionally, at the request of a faculty member, ITS will provide a full copy of their WebCT course on a CD Rom at the end of each term.

Instructors may also backup a copy of their live course to the main WebCT server. Copying courses to the WebCT server is restricted to one backup only. Backup copies of a course to the WebCT server can be created as frequently as wished, but only one copy will be housed on the server at any time—the newest version will overwrite the previous backup. It is helpful to backup a course frequently, particularly if an instructor is actively developing a course. In case of emergency, this backup copy would provide a more current copy of the course than the backup copy generated nightly by ITS.

ITS creates a backup of each WebCT course daily. It is best to consider this backup copy for emergency use only as each week, a portion of the backup is sent to an offsite storage facility. If an emergency occurs and the backup has not been sent to the offsite facility, ITS can restore the course to the date that the backup was created. In this instance, any activity in the course after the date the archive was created will be lost. Please note that it is very difficult to restore a portion of a course, as it cannot be done automatically. To restore a portion of the course requires manually copying and pasting text, and often the course cannot be replicated exactly as it was.

Additionally, if the backup has been sent to the offsite facility, there is a $55.00 restoration fee that is charged by the storage facility to retrieve the tape. If the tape needs to be retrieved during non-business day hours, the fee will be higher. This cost will need to be paid for by the instructor’s division.

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Backing up to the WebCT Server:

You can backup your course at any stage of development. After you create a backup, we recommend that you download it to your computer for safekeeping. If you don't like the changes you've made to the course or if you need to move the course to a different WebCT server, you can upload and restore the backup.

From the Manage Course Area of your WebCT Course

1. Click on Backup Course and select Create backup from the drop-down list, then click Go. The Create Backup screen appears.
2. In the text box, type a brief description for the backup course. This description will appear in the backup listing table. Note: The backup course's filename is created automatically.
3. Click Create. A confirmation screen appears. Note: The backup is automatically saved as a .zip file.
4. Click Continue. The Backup Course screen appears with the backup course listed.

Note: The time required to backup a course depends on both the size of the course and the speed of the server. Large courses may take over 10 minutes to back up. Please consult with your system administrator if backups seem to take a long time to complete.

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Backing up to your Local Computer:

From the Manage Course Area of your WebCT Course:

1. Click on Backup Course and select Create backup from the drop-down list, then click Go. The Create Backup screen appears.
2. In the text box, type a brief description for the backup course. This description will appear in the backup listing table. Note: The backup course's filename is created automatically.
3. Click Create. A confirmation screen appears. Note: The backup is automatically saved as a .zip file.
4. Click Continue. The Backup Course screen appears with the backup course listed.
5. Under the Backup File Functions, select Download from the drop down menu and then click Go.
6. Then Click Save and choose where you would like the file to be saved locally and then click Save. The backup of your course should now be saved to your local computer.

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