DoIT to retain Collaborate recordings for 12 months

Tue, 11 Apr 2023 11:13:29 -0400
announcement, class, collaborate, policy, recordings, retention

Synchronous engagement tools provide platforms for instructors and students to meet during online, hybrid, and hyflex class sessions. Many courses record these live sessions to provide a lecture reference, support test preparation, engage student or group presentations, provide virtual office hours, and more. During the COVID-19 pandemic, however, Collaborate usage exceeded available storage, requiring additional expenses to maintain an unlimited retention practice during uncertain times. As UMBC moves into a post-pandemic period, however, continued storage will incur additional fees each year.

Following the announced Webex recording retention practices, reasonable limitations on Collaborate recording storage will also be implemented. Beginning July 1, 2023, Instructional Technology will retain Collaborate recordings for 12 months. Thereafter, every July, the previous twelve months of recordings will be retired and removed. A three year cycle is defined in the table below.

Retirement Month | Removal Year | Retention Year
July 2023 | July 1, 2021 - June 30, 2022 | July 1, 2022 - June 30, 2023
July 2024 | July 1, 2022 - June 30, 2023 | July 1, 2023 - June 30, 2024
July 2025 | July 1, 2023 - June 30, 2024 | July 1, 2024 - June 30, 2025

Recordings made prior to July 1, 2021 will be removed on May 30, 2023.

If recordings are needed for reuse or longer periods of retention, instructors and session moderators must download important recordings from Collaborate and upload the MP4 files to Panopto for frequent viewing or cloud storage for long term archive. Uploading a recording to Panopto provides captions, basic editing tools, quizzing within a video, embedding options for a Blackboard course, and viewing analytics.
Collaborate recordings include a list of students who attended the live session and chat transcripts, as well as audio/video. As such, Collaborate recordings represent part of a student's educational record and are protected under FERPA for the purposes of privacy. These types of recordings should only be used in the originating course in which the synchronous session occurred, not in other courses. Students who may need access to a recording to fulfill an incomplete will have 12-months of access under this retention policy depending on the terms of the course availability override requested by the instructor.