Per DePaul University’s Records and Retention Policy, Information Services/Faculty Instructional Technology Services retains online instructor materials for a minimum of five years from the end of the course. Materials may be available after that five-year period, but instructors should not depend on such availability.
The records and retention policy was updated during Autumn Quarter of the 2016-2017 academic year. Prior to the update, instructor materials were only retained for a two-year period. This means that courses in D2L prior to the 2012-2013 academic year have been deleted from the system and are no longer retrievable.
The university always sends out an email to faculty to give advance notice before older course sites are purged from D2L. As a best practice, we recommend that you export your older course sites, especially if they are courses you don’t teach frequently. When you export your course site, D2L packages everything in a .zip file, which you can then download and save on your computer. Exporting the course will save all course elements, but not student data or information. When you need it again, you can re-upload the course to D2L (and possibly other learning management systems.) View our Export a Course Site in D2L guide for step-by-step instructions.
If your course has been deleted and you didn’t export a copy of it, the Faculty Instructional Technology Services (FITS) department is happy to help you reconstruct it. Contact us at FITS@depaul.edu to request assistance.