D2L semester courses greater than two years old and inactive Development and Community courses may be removed from the system on a recurring basis. There will be official communication sent to affected individuals prior to any purge. See D2L Retention Policies for more detail. The following information explains how to backup content and user data for future reference. The items are prioritized to help you decide which student records are most important for you to retain.
Course Admin > Import/Export/Copy Components > Export Components
(Make sure to check the box to include course files when prompted)
Exporting your course will create a compressed zip file of the content and settings. No user data will be saved in a course export. When the export is finished, it will be listed under the Alerts icon (bell) in the mini-bar. Click on the link to download the export file. Alerts will persist for up to 90 days. After saving the export file offline, it can be imported back into any D2L course to restore the content. Keep in mind that only course files are overwritten when importing content and all other items are added to the existing content. This may cause duplication in some areas, so it is best to import into a new (blank) course.
Assessments > Grades > Enter Grades > Export
From "Enter Grades," click on "Export" then select "Both," “Points grade,” "Last Name," "First Name," and "Export to CSV."
When the export is finished, click on the link to download the file. The CSV file is preferred if you need to import scores back to Grades at a future time.
Assessments > Assignments
You will see all submissions saved by student name and date, as well as an index file with saved comments.
Note: If you see a file path too long error when extracting the files, try moving the zip file to a different location, or shorten the folder name.
Note: If there is no download option, you can often copy and paste the information into Word.
Communication > Discussions
There is no direct way to download discussion posts but you can get a nice printable view by using the print option while in grid view.
D2L does not have a user friendly view of exported quiz data but you may find some of the options below have value if you need to save statistics.
Assessments > Quizzes > Statistics (third tab over in navbar)
Assessments > Quizzes > quiz title (pull-down) > Grade
If you would like to save specific activity details, consider the following.
You can forward individual email messages from D2L to another address for saving long term. While in Message Preview, click on “Forward,” type your email address in the To field, and click Send.
MSU IT Services Help Desk, (517) 432-6200 or (844) 678-6200 toll free; ithelp@msu.edu