CourseLife is the name for both the lifecycle process of Northwestern Canvas course sites as well as the application within Canvas that instructors can use to view and manage their list of courses throughout the process.
Scope of the CourseLife Process
If a course site originates in CAESAR (i.e., it was used for a credit-bearing course), it will go through the CourseLife process. CAESAR-based course sites may be exempted from the CourseLife process for the following reasons:
- Legal action,
- Ongoing academic integrity investigation,
- Other administrative concerns as initiated by university leadership (i.e., the request cannot originate from an individual faculty member).
Custom course sites (a course site not used for a credit-bearing course), including prep sites, are exempt and will be continuously available in Canvas.
Retention Schedule
There are three phases to CourseLife. Each phase is determined by the end date of the course’s academic term.
- Active: All CAESAR-based course sites will be actively available in Northwestern Canvas for four years from the conclusion of the course’s term.
- Archive: Once four years have passed from the conclusion of a course’s term, that course site will go into the Archive phase. Faculty can request content from courses in the Archive phase, which will be provided in a prep site.
- Years 5-6: While the course site will no longer be available to instructors and students, the course site is still available to all Canvas Admins.
- Years 7-8: The course site is only available to Canvas Admins in Northwestern IT, not school-based admins.
- Deleted: Once eight years have passed from a course’s end date, the course site is deleted, and the content is no longer recoverable.
CourseLife timeline displaying how long content is active or archived before being permanently deleted from the course’s end date.
Cadence of Changes to a Course Site’s Status
The CourseLife process will be run twice a year: in June at the conclusion of the spring quarter and in December at the conclusion of the fall quarter.
- Spring includes:
- Winter quarter sites older than four years
- Spring quarter sites older than four years
- Academic term sites older than four years
- Fall includes:
- Summer quarter sites older than four years
- Fall quarter sites older than four years
Approximately one month prior to a run of CourseLife, any instructor who has a course that is changing phases in the CourseLife lifecycle or has a course marked for archive will receive an email indicating that they should review the app in Canvas.
How to Use CourseLife
Who can Access the CourseLife App in Canvas
- Only instructors as indicated in CAESAR (i.e., the Primary or Secondary Instructor in CAESAR) will be able be able to use the CourseLife application in Canvas.
- Instructors, TAs, or other support staff who were manually added to a course site will not have permission to use the CourseLife application.
- Information related to CourseLife is not visible to students in Canvas.
How to Access the CourseLife App in Canvas
The CourseLife app can be accessed either from the Account menu in the global navigation bar:
Or from a button at the top of the All Courses list.
Using the CourseLife App
The CourseLife application helps instructors track and manage their Northwestern Canvas course lifecycle efficiently. The application displays a list of Canvas courses where each row displays key details about a course. The table can be filtered to only display courses in specific phases, and there is a search box to filter results by the course title.
When a course has reached a date that is four years from the conclusion of the course, it will be listed in the CourseLife app as ‘Approved for archive.’ Prior to the archival date, the only action that can be taken for the course site is to exempt it from archive for six months. Exemptions are only available for the first time a course is marked for archive, and the course will be automatically archived during the subsequent CourseLife run the following June or December.
If an instructor does not take action to exempt a course site, it will be moved to the archive phase on the subsequent archive date.
How to Save Course Content for Future Use
Importing Content to a Prep Site
To save a copy of a course’s materials for future use in a course which has been marked for archival or exempted, create a prep site using the NU Canvas Support Chatbot and then import the source course’s materials into the prep site.
Exporting Content to SharePoint or Another External Storage System
You can export a Canvas course to give to someone in another Canvas account, upload to another institution's account later, or create a copy as a backup in SharePoint. You can import an export file into Canvas at any time.
Exports are packaged as IMSCC ZIP files, which can only be opened by programs that support Common Cartridge files. You can also change the extension from .imscc to .zip and treat it as any other ZIP file.
Zoom, Panopto, and Other Learning App Integration Data
The archiving and subsequent deletion of course recordings in both Zoom and Panopto are coordinated with the CourseLife process. As with CourseLife, the archival processes for Zoom and the main Northwestern instance of Panopto occur biannually, following the conclusion of the fall and spring quarters. The Kellogg and Feinberg instances of Panopto are exempt from this process at this time.
Data from learning apps installed in a course other than Zoom and Panopto must be archived separately. Failure to do so may result in permanent loss of access to associated application data or unexpected charges from the application vendor. Please ensure that you have completed any required archiving steps for each tool before a course is archived.
Support
For assistance with the CourseLife app or to answer any questions related to the CourseLife process and timeline, please fill out the CourseLife Support Request Form linked in the upper righthand corner.