Question about retention of student work

[Mobius]

I don't retain it. My university's LMS deletes all submissions sometime during each subsequent semester. Plus, with people switching jobs or not being renewed, why bother?

[marshwiggle]

I don't retain it. My university's LMS deletes all submissions sometime during each subsequent semester. Plus, with people switching jobs or not being renewed, why bother?

Actually this concerns me. When a student drops a course, the LMS immediately deletes them from my classlist, and all that they have submitted, and grades they've been assigned, also disappear. (I don't know if they're permanently backed up somewhere.) I fear the day someone says they dropped the course "by accident", or there was a glitch in the LMS, because I don't have backups of any of that.

[jerseyjay]

Actually this concerns me. When a student drops a course, the LMS immediately deletes them from my classlist, and all that they have submitted, and grades they've been assigned, also disappear. (I don't know if they're permanently backed up somewhere.) I fear the day someone says they dropped the course "by accident", or there was a glitch in the LMS, because I don't have backups of any of that.

At least once, there was a discrepancy between the the registrar's office and the LMS, so that there were students on my roster who were not in the LMS, which is difficult for an online course.

There have been times that a student withdraws from a course after a certain date, which means I need to put their last date of attendance. Since they are also removed from the LMS, it makes it hard to be able when they last attended an online course if you are only using the LMS. (Because for an asynchronous course, "attendance" means doing some kind of work.)

So I don't think your worry is wrong.

[glowdart]

I don't retain it. My university's LMS deletes all submissions sometime during each subsequent semester. Plus, with people switching jobs or not being renewed, why bother?

Actually this concerns me. When a student drops a course, the LMS immediately deletes them from my classlist, and all that they have submitted, and grades they've been assigned, also disappear. (I don't know if they're permanently backed up somewhere.) I fear the day someone says they dropped the course "by accident", or there was a glitch in the LMS, because I don't have backups of any of that.

This is why I periodically download / export the gradebook. I'm old enough to remember corrupted 5.25" floppies and that distrust of invincible tech has saved me quite a few times.

Our LMS gradebook is also glitchy, so I keep a paper copy with a list of grades from assignments, too.

[mamselle]

I think we also had a discussion about doing one's whole grade book in Excel and only uploading the final scores for each test, exam, paper,, etc. after they were save in Excel (which can be done as a quick copy-and-paste line on the class page, I recall--that's what I did, anyway.

But yeah--never trust the software they make you use. It's always buggy or impermanent

M.

[Caracal]

I think we also had a discussion about doing one's whole grade book in Excel and only uploading the final scores for each test, exam, paper,, etc. after they were save in Excel (which can be done as a quick copy-and-paste line on the class page, I recall--that's what I did, anyway.

But yeah--never trust the software they make you use. It's always buggy or impermanent

M.

Honestly, my feeling is that if the LMS screws up, it won't be my fault. I would hope that schools have some kind of method for backing up the system, but it isn't really my job to create my own backup. Being able to input the grades in the LMS directly into the same system saves me a lot of time and keeping an extra spreadsheet would just be one more administrative time suck.

[mamselle]

For me, it was the other way around.

Excel was so much easier to set up and maintain than the LMS; I avoided the latter until I had to use it, basically.

M.

[jerseyjay]

Honestly, my feeling is that if the LMS screws up, it won't be my fault. I would hope that schools have some kind of method for backing up the system, but it isn't really my job to create my own backup. Being able to input the grades in the LMS directly into the same system saves me a lot of time and keeping an extra spreadsheet would just be one more administrative time suck.

Except (1) At the school in question--where we were required to keep information for six years--the LMS was purged every three or four years, and we were explicitly told to keep a backup (2) I tell my students that if I loose their papers it is my fault but their problem since now they have to redo their final paper (without a penalty). That is, I tell them to keep a copy in case something happens. I do the same for my taxes.

Nonetheless, I have to admit that I did not always create a backup going back six years because I've never had a student complain.