The policy comes in response to the unprecedented use of Zoom for blended courses, meetings and events and its impact on the platform’s cloud storage capacity for Elon users
In the weeks following its official campus rollout last fall, Zoom quickly became the web conferencing platform of choice for many Elon faculty, staff and students. Now, months later, that unprecedented use has pushed the tool’s cloud storage capacity to its limits.
To ease the strain, Information Technology will implement a video retention policy on June 1 that will establish a timeframe for how long Zoom video recordings will remain stored within the platform. However, those same recordings will continue to be automatically copied to Kaltura, where they can be stored indefinitely for seamless downloading and sharing, according to Associate Vice President for Technology and Chief Information Officer Christopher Waters.
“This new retention policy will not only optimize the allotted cloud storage space for Elon faculty, staff and students who use the service, but also help to ensure the service continues to run smoothly for all users,” he said.
Beginning June 1, video recordings saved to Zoom’s cloud storage service will only be retained for 90 days from the date of the recording. After 90 days, recordings are moved to the user’s “Trash,” and if necessary, can be restored for a limited amount of time. However, after 120 days, video recordings will be permanently deleted. At that time or at any time prior, Elon users may visit Kaltura or Moodle to access past recordings.
Though the new retention period will help to manage cloud storage within Zoom, Elon users can also help, Waters said.
“We offer a number of file storage and sharing services, like Kaltura, Microsoft OneDrive and Microsoft Stream, to help faculty, staff and students organize and share materials, and we encourage them to manage their own video recordings regularly to ensure they don’t lose valuable content,” he said.
Elon users can log into Kaltura to access, download or share Zoom video recordings, or bring recordings directly into a Moodle course using the video resource feature. Video recordings also are accessible from the My Media section in Moodle, linked at the bottom of the left column navigation.
In addition to the automatic copy of recordings in Kaltura, Zoom users may also take advantage of other Microsoft applications, such as OneDrive or Stream to store, organize and share video recordings with internal and external viewers. Learn more about cloud storage and file sharing options at Elon.
For questions or to report an issue, please contact the Technology Service Desk at 336-278-5200 or visit the IT Self-Service Portal.
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