Blackboard Course Size Limit Policy

In order to manage course size efficiently, the CUNY Central Blackboard Steering Committee has implemented a course size limit policy: all course data in Blackboard will be limited to a tiered storage size limit:

Tier 1: 750 MB (Default)
Tier 2: 1.5 GB (Faculty must fill out the Course Size Limit Increase Request Form with detailed justification)
Tier 3: 3 GB (Faculty must fill out the Course Size Limit Increase Request Form with detailed justification)

Faculty members will receive a warning when copying or importing a course that is larger than the default course size limit. You can find instructions for checking the current size of any course and for reducing the course size below.

Checking Your Course Size

1. Go to your course and under the Control Panel menu click Packages and Utilities.

menu image

2. From the list of options click on Course Copy.

Course Copy

3. Once the page loads, scroll to the File Attachments section and click on the third option, “Copy links and copies of content (include entire course home folder).” Click the Calculate Size button.

Calculate Size

4. This will show you the size of your course (along with a warning message if your course is over the size limit of 750 MB).

Course Size Message

Identifying and Deleting Duplicate Files

The Content Collection of a course has all the files that have been added to that course.

1. Click the name of your course under Control Panel > Content Collection.

Content Collection

2. You should be able to view all the content that is stored within the course, including, among other things: the file type, the date that the file was last edited, and the file size.

Imported Content

3. To locate duplicate files, look for the names that have a number in parentheses, e.g., Guides -PDF(1). This means that there are multiple copies of this file taking up storage space within your course. To delete the file, select the box to the left of its icon and click Delete.

PDF duplicate

4. In the pop-up window, click OK to confirm the deletion.

confirm delete

Creating Web Links to Audio and Video Files

Media files (especially video files) tend to be very big and consume the majority of space provided for your course. If the video files that are currently saved to the Content Collection can be found on the web, we suggest the following:

Instead of adding a video file to the course, create a web link. A web link allows the students to click on the title and they are directed to the website where the content is located.

1. Go to a content area in your course. Click Build Content and from the list of options and select Web Link.

Web Link

2. Enter the title and link of the video and click Submit. Below is an example of a completed web link.

weblink completed

If the video cannot be found on the web, there are services on campus that can allow for you to store these videos outside of Blackboard. This video can then be linked to from within Blackboard, so that your students can click it to view the content. Please contact us at 646-312-1010 or e-mail us at helpdesk@baruch.cuny.edu so we can provide you with alternative ways of providing the videos to your students.

To request an increase in course size please attach the Course Size Limit Increase Form to an e-mail and send it to helpdesk@baruch.cuny.edu (with “Course Size Limit Increase Request” in the subject field); however, please note that there is no guarantee that CUNY Central will approve all requests. CUNY indicates that after they have made the final decision, requests will take 24 to 48 hours to complete. If you have any questions about your course size, please contact the Help Desk at 646-312-1010.