Archiving Educational Data
This page contains the TU Delft official guidelines on how long, where and how to store what educational data.
Why
As lecturers, you need to know how long and where you need to store data that you and your students produced, e.g. exams, answer models, student answers, assignments, projects, recordings of oral exams, etc. On this page you find the binding requirements that originate in the Archive Law and in the decision of DMA (Data Management and Archive) of the TU Delft. For more information, contact Teaching Support.
Guiding principles
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All data (either digital-born, paper-born and 3D) should be archived in its original format.
The format in which students (or lecturers) deliver information to the TU Delft determines whether information should be stored in digital, paper, or 3D form.
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Digital-born data: information that either you or the student entered in a computer or similar device. Example: digital exam, remote exam, recorded oral exam, digital poster.
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Paper-born data: information that either you or the student wrote on paper. Example: handwritten exam, handwritten scoring of printed student work. If this information is later scanned or photographed (digitized) by the TU Delft, it is still called ‘paper-born’. If a student digitizes information before handing it in, for example by taking a picture of handwritten work, it referred to ‘digital-born’.
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3D-data: student work of which the three-dimensional shape partially determines the quality of the work. Example: maquette/model, painting, etc.
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The retention periods in the table below states minimum and maximum retention (archiving) periods. The data must be destroyed after the maximum period.
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- If you ask your students to deliver or create their work in Brightspace, or in other centrally supported tools, the TU Delft performs archiving and destruction according to the retention periods (educational tool administrators together with DMA/Document Management Archive). These tools are listed in the following sites:
- ‘Assessment and assignments'
- ‘(Peer) feedback’
- ‘Practice and interactive courseware’
- Repository (only for final theses and large project)
- Graduation projects in mycase.tudelft.nl (only for final master theses)
- If you have a valid reason to deviate from the above standard and choose to store student work or your assessments elsewhere, you (the examiner of the course) are responsible for archiving and destruction yourself. Please be aware that collaborative platforms such as MS Teams are not suitable for storing student work, nor are retention periods centrally managed by TU Delft in that case.
- If you ask your students to deliver or create their work in Brightspace, or in other centrally supported tools, the TU Delft performs archiving and destruction according to the retention periods (educational tool administrators together with DMA/Document Management Archive). These tools are listed in the following sites:
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Student work and feedback/grades that is not part of summative assessment (i.e. does not count towards a grade, like formative assessments or learning activities) is also sensitive personal data and should be stored and destroyed under the same circumstances as summative assessment data. Only the student themself should be able to access their work, feedback and grades (unless as part of an educational activity like peer review).
Reason: Students should be able to make mistakes without being afraid that the information will become available to unauthorized people or is stored indefinitely. This helps to create a safe learning environment. -
Data should be stored in a secure place. This implies two things:
- Restrict access: only authorized people should be able to access the data (because it is sensitive personal information), and
- Reduce the risk of data loss: if you as a lecturer/examiner continue your career outside the TU Delft or are temporary unable, the colleague who replaces you should be able to access the data if required. Therefore, storage on personal drives (including e.g. Surfdrive) is advised against.
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Data that you store on your own devices (like test result analyses) should be anonymized by removing personal data, like names and study numbers, and other data by which the student could be (indirectly) identified.
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The student has the right of access to their work due to the GDPR and therefore can request to see the work during the retention period.
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Formal appeal procedures have a deadline of 6 weeks. In that period of time the student can only appeal if the integrity of the their work can be assured. Especially for 3D student work, this implies that the examiner must guarantee that the student work cannot be altered after establishing their grade during these 6 weeks.
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Resulting paper-born feedback is given to students, while resulting digital-born feedback is stored in centrally supported assessment tools or Brightspace in. These tools are used to make the feedback available to the students.
How to archive?
The options for ‘how to archive’ are sorted from ‘best practice’ (Green light), via ‘okay’ (Yellow light) to ‘strongly discouraged’ (Red light).
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Where to store paper-born student data?
NB: If you scan paper-born student work, you are legally obliged to save the paper data as well!
Place
Archive quality
Destruction facility (see step 3) More information and issues
Library Archive
Library Archive Team, via topdesk or dm-lib@tudelft.nl
Faculty’s archive, department archive, shared team archive
Your faculty’s ESA, department or team
Issues:-
Less secure,
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You need to destruct the data yourself.
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Locked cupboard in your office
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Box in a lockable office
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Personal locker
Issues:
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Team members may not gain access after change of jobs or archive might be destroyed;
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Less secure
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You need to destruct the data yourself.
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Storage in a public room
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Unlocked cupboard
Issues:
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Not secure
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Data might get lost
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You need to destruct the data yourself.
Where to store digital student data?
NB: If your digital data is scanned student work, you are legally obliged to save the paper data as well.
Place
Archive quality
Destruction facility (see step 3)
More information
Educational dedicated tools/applications
Brightspace, or the centrally procured and supported tools in the categories ‘Assessment and assignments’, ‘(Peer) feedback’, ‘Practice and interactive courseware’
SharePoint on-premise server
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It is theoretically possible to create an automated archive process in SharePoint on premise that complies with the archiving and security standards as described above, but this requires help from support and has not been done before.
Normally, this requires active manual action by the lecturer which makes it prone to error.Faculty or department Fileshare (e.g. M,N,U fileshare)
/ It is possible (but a lot of work) to create an archive process in SharePoint on-premise, but this requires help from Support (see row ‘Sharepoint on-premise server’). In addition, you need to actively restrict access to the data to the people who need to have access (and no one else).
Teams / SharePoint 365
Student work, feedback and study results may not be stored in Teams and Sharepoint 365 because it’s sensitive personal data, see here.
Surfdrive
Risk of data loss, because it is a personal drive
Your own hard drive, in ‘My documents’
Risk of data loss, no backup
OneDrive, Google Drive, Dropbox
Privacy concerns and risk of data loss, because it is a personal drive
email
Privacy concerns and risk of data loss, because it is a personal drive
Where to store 3D data?
Use your faculty’s storage facilities. Contact your faculty’s ESA for more information. The library can help to digitize 3D work, if necessary.
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Based on the Archiving Law and TU Delft regulations you will need to archive documents for a certain period (see table below). You are responsible for archiving and destruction. Please find the retention periods in the table below, and follow the instructions on archiving and destruction as given in step 3.
Exceptions:
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In case of paper-based student work, you can bring this work to either your faculty’s storage (not yet available in all faculties) or to the Library Document Management & Archive (DMA) and they will take care of archiving and destruction within the legal periods.
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If you make use of digital assessment tools or Brightspace, then the TU Delft takes care of archiving and destruction within the legal periods.
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After the retention period is met, the data should be destroyed or handed back to the student (e.g. in case of 3D work).
How to destroy paper-based data?
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If you use the GREEN options (Faculty storage or Library Archive), you don’t have to do anything.
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If not: Use the special bins for paper that need to be destroyed, do not use the standard blue paper bins.
How to destroy 3D data?
- Enable students to collect their work before destruction.
How to destroy digital data?
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If you use GREEN applications, you don’t have to do anything.
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If not, you have to delete the files completely. If they are moved to a recycle bin, delete them from the recycle bin as well.
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In the table below, you will find a list of minimum and maximum retention periods. The retention periods are applicable to summative and formative assessments, with the exemption for formative student work that is returned to students after giving feedback on the work.
You will need to destroy the data between the minimum and maximum retention period. The retention period starts when the examiner communicates the students’ course grades:
Assessment type
what
Minimum
Maximum
References
Model Rules & Guidelines of the Board of Examiners (model R&G), Selectielijst Universiteiten en Universitair Medische Centra 2020 (SL)
Archive law
(V means destroy, number means years after processing, unless otherwise specified)
Written exam (incl. digital exams)
Exam
7 years
SL proc. 54,
Rules & Guidelines of the Board of Examiners (model R&G: art. 16.1)54 V7
Answer model exam
7 years
SL proc. 54,
Rules & Guidelines of the Board of Examiners (model R&G: art. 16.1)54 V7
Student answers
2 years
3 years
SL proc. 54,
Rules & Guidelines of the Board of Examiners (model R&G: art. 16.1)54 V2
Assessment of student answers: scores, annotations, feedback
2 years
3 years
SL proc. 54
54 V2
List of participants, stored in your own room, separated from the completed exams
2 months
3 months
SL proc. 54
54 V2 months
List of participants, centrally archived with security measures, stored in the box with student answers (completed exams). Examples:
- ESA is responsible for centrally archiving Ans print-scan exams
- LIB-DMA centrally archives paper exams (e.g. at EEMCS)
2 years
3 years
SL proc. 54
54 V2 months
Score list with names and points, outside Brightspace / assessment tool
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6 months
SL proc. 54, Rules & Guidelines of the Board of Examiners (model R&G: art. 16.1)
na
Test result analysis (if available, it must be stored anonymized, so without names and without student numbers)
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SL proc. 54
na
Score-grade transformation or cut-off score (if available)
7 years
SL proc. 54
54 V7
Assessment evaluation (if available)
7 years
SL proc. 54
54 V7
Online proctoring recordings (if available)
After relieve of suspicions
90 calendar days, or longer in case of legal proceedings
SL proc. 54
See AVG
Oral exam (incl. online and recorded oral exams)
Oral exam equivalent of written exam: List of all questions and cases, scenario, etc.
7 years
Privacy statement of the online proctoring regulations
54 V7
Grading guide (empty): assessment form, rubric, etc.
7 years
SL proc. 54
54 V7
List of participants (only if outside Brightspace)
2 months
3 months
SL proc. 54
54 V2 months
Personal notes of oral exam
2 months
3 months
SL proc. 54
54 V2 months
Completed grading guides (assessment forms).
2 years
3 years
SL proc. 54
54 V2
Recordings of the oral exam (sound and/or visual)
2 months
3 months
SL proc. 54
54 V2
Other formative / summative assessments (practicals, assignments, projects, reports, presentations, lab work, computer practical, field trip, research internship, etc.)
Assessment instructions: Assignments, project description, manual, etc.
7 years
Security and privacy of oral examination
54 V7
Grading guide (empty): assessment form, rubric, etc.
7 years
SL proc. 54
54 V7
Intermediate student products
3 years
SL proc. 54
54 V2
Final student products of practical work: reports, powerpoint, videos, etc.
2 years
3 years
SL proc. 54
54 V2
Assessment of student work: scores, annotations, feedback
2 years
3 years
SL proc. 54
54 V2
3D-products of students
6 weeks after announcement of results (e.g. grade). In case of absence of result announcement, 6 weeks after exam.
3 months (enable students to pick up their work)
SL proc. 54
54 V6 weeks (see guidelines)
Completed grading guides (assessment forms).
2 years
3 years
Model Rules & Guidelines of the Board of Examiners (model R&G: art. 16.3)
54 V2
Graduation work
Graduation manual
7 years
SL proc. 54
54 V7
Grading guide (empty): assessment form, rubric, etc.
7 years
SL proc. 59
54 V7
Intermediate student products
2 years
3 years
SL proc. 59
54 V2
Feedback on intermediate products
2 years
3 years
54 V2
Final student products: reports (MSc/BSc thesis), powerpoint, etc.
7 years
Rules & Guidelines of the Board of Examiners (model R&G: art. 16.2)
54 V7 or longer in case of importance for the TU Delft
3D-products of students
6 weeks after announcement of results (e.g. grade). In case of absence of result announcement, 6 weeks after exam.
3 months (enable students to pick up their work), 3D digitalizations of final work can be saved 7 years or longer
Rules & Guidelines of the Board of Examiners (model R&G: art. 16.3)
54 V6 weeks (see guidelines)
Completed grading guides (assessment forms)
7 years
8 years
Rules & Guidelines of the Board of Examiners (model R&G: art. 16.2)
54 V7
Plagiarism report
2 years
3 years
54 V2
Background information
- Authors: Esther Maes (Library-DMA), Lisette Harting (TLS)
- Co-authors: Privacy Team, Legal, Open Education (Library), Communication (Library), TLS
- Feedback received from: Student Council
- Owner of content: DMA, Taskforce Assessment
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