UNI eLearning Suite

Locate and Delete Large Files from Your Bb Learn Course

Deleting a file/icon from a Course Content page/area in your course does not remove it from the behind-the-scenes file storage area (Content Collection). When you add files to your Bb Learn course, it uploads the file into your course's Content Collection. Simultaneously, it makes a link to the uploaded file on whatever page you were on when starting the process. So when you delete the icon from a Bb Learn page, you are not deleting the file itself. As a result, courses often have old files in their Content Collection that are no longer being used. These files contribute to your "Course Quota". You must also delete the file from the Content Collection to permanently remove it from the course, thereby decreasing your course size. It is important to occasionally go into Content Collection and delete files that are no longer needed.

Here's what you'll find on this page:

Why It's Important to Keep Your Course's Content Collection Area Cleaned Up

UNI has implemented a 1GB "Course Quota" on each course (implemented on 4/23/2021, starting with the creation of Fall 2021 Bb Learn courses). This ensures we don't exceed the overall allotted storage limit as specified in our contract with Blackboard. Exceeding the limit subjects the University to additional storage expenses which, in turn, raises Student Technology Fees. So it is important to keep our courses as clean and efficient as possible. 

Learn how to check your Bb Learn course size.

Be Aware! If you try to upload a file that would cause the course to exceed its quota, the upload will not complete.

How You Can Access and Clean Up Your Content Collection Area

  1. Log in to Bb Learn and go into your course.
  2. Under Content Collection in the left hand navigation, click on the Course ID, which is also the first option in the drop-down menu (For courses for credit, this will likely be a number. For other courses, the Course ID may not be a number.) This will reveal a list showing files you've uploaded to your course.

    screenshot showing location of course ID number link to access the course's Content Collection
     
  3. Please note, if you have a lot of files, you may have multiple pages in your course's Content Collection. You can move between pages or select Show All using the controls in the bottom, right corner of the list.

    Content Collection pagination controls
     
  4. Sort the list to show the largest files at the top by clicking Size in the heading row twice. (The first click results in showing the smallest size at the top. The second click reverses the order.) Alternatively, if looking for a particular file type, such as videos (which should not be uploaded to Blackboard; rather use Panopto instead), you may wish to sort via the File Type column rather than the Size column.*

    screenshot showing "Size" in header row

    OR

    screenshot showing File Type in header row
     
  5. Check the boxes next to the files you wish to delete.**

    screenshot showing 3 check boxes checked and the delete button
     
  6. Click Delete. A pop-up box will appear for you to confirm the deletion. (NOTE: This action is final and cannot be undone. If folders are selected, all subfolders and files are also deleted.)**
  7. Click OK to permanently delete the videos from your Bb Learn course's Content Collection storage area.
  8. Click Submit to finalize the deletion. NOTE: You can deselect files during this step if needed. 
  9. Repeat for files on additional pages if necessary.

*Generally, videos constitute the largest files. If you have uploaded videos to your course, they should be moved into Panopto. Duplicate files are another common issue leading to the course quota being used up. Strategies to reduce the file size of images can be applied before uploading into Bb Learn.

**CAUTION: Make sure that the files being deleted are either backed up or unnecessary, as deleting them from the content collection will remove them from your course completely.

How You Can Tell Whether a File Is In Use

  1. Hover over the file and open the action link next to the file name and select 360° View.

    screenshot showing contextual dropdown button to the right of the file name and the resulting menu with 360 view as an option
     
  2. The Links section, near the bottom of the page, will tell you if and/or where a file is linked in the course.

    screenshot showing Links section in 360 view

    Alternatively, if you begin to delete a file that is linked, you will see the List Files with Links page. Clicking the 360° View icon there will also show you where the file is linked and you can cancel the Delete action if you want to retain the file.

How You Can Download and Save Files Before Deleting

  1. In your list of files, check the boxes in front of the files you want to download.
  2. Click Download Package and follow the prompts. Multiple files will download in a single zipped file. 

    screenshot showing several files checked and the location of the "Download Package" button