Can course files including student submissions be exported?

[bradhollenbeck]

Is there a way to export Canvas course content including student submissions? Our university has a five-year data retention policy and we would like to store concluded courses including student submissions on a storage server separate from Canvas.

[kmeeusen · Accepted solution]

Hi @bradhollenbeck 

As far as I know, the answer is no.

Canvas can, and does, retain your courses forever (or until they are deleted by the school), so why not jut keep them in Canvas for the duration of the retention rules? All states have retention laws, and our state is no different. We left our courses in Canvas.

Canvas' Professional Services department might be able to whip something up for you for a price. We have used them several times in the past, they are good and the are reasonable. You could inquire through your Customer Service rep. Ideally, I would think you would want a script installed that you could run once a year or so, to back up to your own server. Keep in mind that to recover the student data, you would need to download the archived content into a Canvas shell.

In the meantime, you could throw your support to an Idea Conversation asking for archive capability. See, Course Archive Process.

Good luck,

Kelley

[JasonSimmons]

Hi Brad,

Instructure rolled out a new offering last year - Canvas Archiving powered by K16 Solutions (link below). Institutions are able to archive course content and student data, allowing them to back up their courses, reduce clutter, and secure sensitive student data.  Institutions can also access and retrieve content at any time. Thanks.

https://www.instructure.com/services/canvas-archiving

Best,
Jason