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Blackboard Course Limits
Size limits are implemented within the Blackboard environment. Each course will have a limit of 1G of total space. This will help CSU to stay within contracted space allowances.
What is the course size limit?
Course limits are set to 1G for Spring semester
What is the average size of a Blackboard Course?
Over 90% of the courses in our Blackboard environment are well under 1G. Unfortunately, most of the courses that are oversized are more recent courses from 2020 when video content became more of a necessity.
How do faculty know if they are approaching or over the 1G limit?
Instructors will receive a Blackboard notification when they are close or over the 1G limit. Instructors are receiving these notifications now, but they will not impact their ability to load content for Fall semester. Course limits go into effect for all new courses, beginning Spring semester. If you are receiving this notification now, please refrain from uploading video content into your Fall semester Blackboard courses. Video content should be uploaded to Panopto.
What about course copies from a previous semester?
If instructors have courses from previous semesters that are over 1G, they will be able to copy that course into a new, Spring course, but they will not be able to add content if it is over 1G. We can set individual course quotas for instructors who have oversized courses to allow them to upload additional, small documents (but not enough to add video). We will add 100MB to oversized spring semester courses. Use the request form to have space added to a course. Additional space will not be added to courses that are not over the limit.
If a course is over 1G, will students be able to submit assignments?
Yes, students will still be able to submit assignments, as student files do not count toward course size quotas. HOWEVER, if instructors are requiring students to submit videos as part of an assignment, a PANOPTO student submission assignment should be created.
How does Panopto content contribute to course size?
Panopto content does not contribute to your Blackboard course size. Using Panopto for video content (either newly created or existing content) is the proper way to present video in your Blackboard courses.
How do Zoom recordings and Collaborate recordings contribute to course size?
As long as you are providing links to recordings, Zoom and Collaborate recordings do not count toward your course size. These recordings will only increase your course size if you are downloading them from Zoom or Collaborate and uploading them to your Blackboard course.
What makes a course larger than 1G? What can instructors do to reduce the size of their courses?
1. The most common reason for oversized courses is video content. Videos should be uploaded to Panopto and linked or embedded into courses. Videos should not be uploaded directly to Blackboard.
- If you have video content in your course, and you are no longer using the videos, delete them from Blackboard. You must delete the videos from the control panel/files area in order for your course size to be reduced.
- If you have video content uploaded to your Blackboard course that you want to preserve, download it from Blackboard, upload it to Panopto and redo the links in your course content area to point to the Panopto video. See
Convert Video to Panopto Instructions.pdf - If you are using Zoom to record synchronous sessions, record to the Zoom cloud and link to that from your Blackboard course rather than uploading directly to your course.
2. Course copies – copy ONLY ONCE! Be patient and let the process complete. Blackboard generates an email when the process has completed. Refresh your browser or logout and login to view content.