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LMS Site Retention Period

Overview

Pepperdine University has adopted a retention period for sites on its learning management system (LMS). As years pass, the number of sites increases, consuming more resources. As of July 31, 2022, a five-year LMS retention period was adopted for our previous LMS, Courses/Sakai, and continues today for Pepperdine Canvas.

Benefits

To keep our LMS system running smoothly and promote modern accessibility practices, Pepperdine University has adopted a five-year LMS site retention period. The retention period will also promote best practices in stewardship of University resources, academic records retention, student privacy, and instructional design.

As a reminder to all faculty and staff, Pepperdine University has a web accessibility policy that must be considered when creating, reviewing, importing, or adopting class content or tools. The removal of older LMS content will reduce the likelihood of reusing outdated materials, especially those that may not adhere to the most recent accessibility guidelines (WCAG 2.1 guidelines, published June 5, 2018).

Table of Contents

Logo of an archive box with a document.

Reminder

Please remember to routinely download key LMS content for long-term recordkeeping. This may include course gradebooks, learning artifacts, or other data for either future student letters of recommendation or accreditation. Always password-protect student data.

Retention Schedule

Pepperdine Canvas

Retention actions will become effective on August 1, 2030. At that time, sites older than 5 years will be eligible for removal. Notices will be sent to the community prior to this date.

What You Need to Do

Review Old LMS Site Content

Guiding Questions

Consider the following steps when you review content from your old sites on the LMS:

  1. Do you still need it? Is this content still current or relevant to your latest class learning objectives or teaching materials?
  2. Is it accessible? Are students or colleagues who may need to use screen readers or other accessibility tools able to use this content?
  3. Do you already have a copy (or copies!) of it? You likely uploaded the content to the LMS from your computer. Do you have original copies on your computer hard drive or cloud storage? Or maybe you have been importing past class content each semester into your newer class sites, so you have copies there?

Locate Older LMS Sites

Courses/Sakai

The deadline to access and download content from Courses/Sakai was Sunday, May 31, 2026. As of June 1, 2026, community access to Sakai ended. 

Pepperdine Canvas
  1. Visit canvas.pepperdine.edu
  2. Select the "Courses" option in the main navigation (left menu in a computer browser, Courses button in mobile app)
  3. Select "All Courses"
  4. Review the list of classes
  5. Use the "Term" table header to sort (ascending/descending)
  6. Select (or right-click) a site title to visit it

TIP: If you already have copies of the information on your computer, devices, cloud storage, or other LMS class sites, then you don't need to spend extra time downloading duplicate copies of older materials.

Retain Old Site Content

After your assessment of any older class or project sites, if there is content that is important to retain and you don't have other copies of it already, then it will be important to take steps to download the content or import materials to a new class or project site.

Download Your Older LMS Content

NOTE: Courses/Sakai is no longer available for access.

The deadline to access and download content from Courses/Sakai was Sunday, May 31, 2026. As of June 1, 2026, community access to Sakai ended. Professors who did not already request class site migration of instructional materials may still request a site migration until August 2026. A site migration does not export any student data; it only copies instructional content like lessons, resource files, tests/quizzes, and assignments.

Pepperdine Canvas Instructors

Professors and site owners should refer to the following:

Student or Access Roles

Students interested in downloading their past class content will visit each class site that they still have access to. They will download their own content and any other content they have permission to download. Students should refer to any copyright statements in the course syllabus or confer with the instructor(s) to confirm that permission to download the faculty member's content has been approved.

 

FERPA Data Protections

When downloading content, be sure that academic records are protected. Professors must safeguard graded content, student submissions, and other materials considered academic records. Likewise, students must respect the materials and discussions of their classmates. Academic records, including graded materials, discussion board posts, and class meeting recordings, cannot be publicly shared without the express written authorization of the class participants.

 

Copyright Considerations

Lecture and other course materials are owned by the content creators, whether the professor, authors, textbook publishers, or other sources of the information. Please refer to any copyright or limitations of use statements in each class syllabus and check with each instructor for permission before saving any materials. Class materials must not be used for commercial purposes or shared publicly without the express written permission of the copyright holder(s).

Frequently Asked Questions

  Courses/Sakai: What is the difference between a class site and a project site?

Course or “class” sites were officially created sites intended for academic purposes. The creation of these sites was based on data from our student information system, WaveNet. In our old LMS, Courses/Sakai, Project sites were available to any official community member (current student, faculty, or staff) for projects, assignments, self-paced training courses, etc. Project site creation was disabled in 2025. Pepperdine Canvas does not support project sites; the community is encouraged to use Google Workspace for collaboration needs.

  How do I find the age of my site?

Courses/Sakai

Community access to Courses/Sakai ended on June 1, 2026.

Pepperdine Canvas

  1. Log in to Pepperdine Canvas.
  2. Select "Courses" in the main navigation (on a computer, it is in the left menu; on a mobile app, it is the "Courses" button).
  3. Select "All Courses."
  4. Use the "Term" column to locate past class sites.
  Why did the University establish a five-year retention period? (Why 5 years?)

Pepperdine University has adopted a five-year retention period since the majority of academic programs are for 4-years or fewer. Five years was selected for a little extra time for review, and was also generous in comparison to many other institutions that retain LMS class content for shorter periods of time.

At the end of the day, faculty need only to retain content that remains current and relevant to teaching. Instructors can and do already import content from prior terms into new class sites, reducing the need to retain multiple instances of the same content across multiple classes and terms. Importantly, reducing the storage, database, and system load on the LMS will lead to greater performance and reliability for current classes.

  What about doctoral students who may study beyond five years?

In the past, a one-year exception was made available for any sites that were used for doctoral programs that are longer than 4 years or project sites that are too cumbersome to review and update due to complex permissions or business processes. Given the transition away from Courses/Sakai, the 5-year retention removal process has been placed on permanent hold. Sites that exist today will remain until the service is decommissioned. Users are encouraged to download any data from Courses/Sakai before June 2026, when community access will be removed.

  How can instructors look back at class content in response to a former student requesting a letter of recommendation?

Professors can review past grade information in WaveNet, the official location for final academic grades. After students graduate from Pepperdine, however, their network accounts will be disabled and then removed. Once the alumni network account deactivation happened, their information on Courses/Sakai was no longer visible within the LMS. This means that roughly 90 days after graduation, professors could not view or access past class information for alumni. Instructors were encouraged to download any data that may need to be preserved for longer than 5 years.

  How do I handle grade disputes if student content in Courses/Sakai is removed after five years?

All schools require quick action related to grade disputes. Some require action within three weeks (14 business days) of the dispute or the posting of final semester grades. No school allows disputes beyond one year (at most, two semesters for the "next non-summer term").

Caruso School of Law (CSOL)

See page 20, topic 6.32, "Modification of Grades" of CSOL's Academic Policy. Specifically, "For all examinations taken during the fall semester, any grade corrections must be made prior to the end of the following spring semester. For all examinations taken during the spring semester or summer session, any grade corrections must be made prior to the end of the following fall semester."

Graduate School of Education and Psychology (GSEP)

See page 234, heading "Academic Dispute," within the GSEP Academic Catalog. Specifically, "... [action must be taken] within 14 business days of the dispute arising (excluding University holidays and term breaks)."

Graziadio Business School (PGBS)

See the topic "Grade Appeal" in the Academic Policies of the PGBS Academic Catalog. Specifically, "In either case, students have up to 30 calendar days from the date the grade was assigned to initiate the appeal process."

School of Public Policy (SPP)

See page 121, heading "Student Petition," within the SPP Academic Catalog. Specifically, "... student issues must be made within one semester of completion of the coursework…"

Seaver College

See the Registrar's Grade Disputes for Seaver College. Specifically, "This process must be initiated by the student before the midpoint of the next non-summer semester, which immediately follows the course in question."

 

See Also

 

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