As the end of the academic year approaches, it is the perfect time to take a look at your existing Blackboard file storage areas and do some tidying up. Over time, your storage space can become cluttered with old and duplicated files, making it difficult to find what you need and using up your storage allowance.
In this blog post, we’ll discuss some tips and best practices for removing old and duplicated files from your Blackboard file storage area.
1. Review your existing files
The first step in cleaning up your Blackboard file storage area is to review your files. This means going through your folders and subfolders and identifying any files that are no longer needed or duplicated. You can sort your files by date modified, file size, or name to help you identify the oldest or largest files.
2. Delete duplicates
Duplicates take up unnecessary space in your Blackboard file storage area, making it difficult to find the files you need. Sorting the files by name is an easy way to spot any duplicates. Once you have found them they can be deleted.
3. Remove any video files
Videos should not be uploaded directly into your Blackboard file area as they can soon eat up your storage allowance. All videos should be added via Panopto (see here for help to do this). YouTube or Vimeo links can be embedded into the module without affecting the storage total.
4. Be ruthless
Just as when clearing out a wardrobe, sometimes it pays to be honest about whether something really needs to be kept. Files are often copied from one year to the next without considering whether they are still used or useful. It is tempting to leave that PowerPoint that you created in 2017, ‘just in case’ you might need it in the future, however we would recommend saving it to your One Drive/Share Point and then deleting it from the Blackboard files.
Sorting out file systems is rarely anyone’s idea of fun, however spending some time doing this now can prevent future problems of a full file area. If you would like any further guidance or help with this please contact us tel@worc.ac.uk
