Archiving courses in ICON
The University of Iowa is implementing a content retention plan to archive ICON courses to stay in compliance with the Title II mandate that all active course materials must meet accessibility standards. Archived courses are an exception; if older courses are archived and kept solely for reference and not actively used, they do not need to be remediated. This is outlined in the Summary of Exceptions from the ADA resource guide.
If you have questions about archiving ICON courses, there is ICON Course Archiving FAQs or you can contact your college's IT department.
In Mid-spring 2026, instructors and course administrators will have the ability to opt courses into an abbreviated cycle of being archived for one year, then in Deep Storage for one year, and marking them as exempt from the Title II mandate.
Course Archiving Process
Active
Year 1Students' ability to participate in the course and access it from the Dashboard ends with the end of the term. The course transitions to read-only view and access is only available through the Courses page access after that.
Complete access removed only when the instructor or admin checks the box to restrict students from viewing within the course settings. (This step is optional.)
Teachers, TAs, and Designers maintain full access to the course until the end of the next year's equivalent term.
Archive
Year 2-5Course names will be updated to indicate they are Archived.
Students' participation and Dashboard access ends with the term, and it transitions to read-only view and Courses page access after that. Complete access is removed only when instructor/admin checks the box to restrict students from viewing within the course settings.Teachers, TAs, and Designers can view the course in read-only mode, and it is accessible through the Courses page. The course is removed from the Dashboard.
Instructors will have access to a self-service dashboard to restore access to the course.
Courses do not need to be remediated for accessibility in this stage.Deep Storage
Year 6Course names will be updated to indicate they are in the Deep Storage stage.
All course enrollments removed (students, teachers, etc.)
Instructors are removed from the self-service dashboard.
Instructors can submit a ticket to Help Desk staff to request access.
Courses do not need to be remediated for accessibility in this stage.
Course is deleted
Year 7
Opt-In Deep Storage
Instructors and course administrators can opt-in to move courses to Deep Storage courses earlier.
Initial Spring 2026 Opt-In
If a course or set of courses is opted to have the course moved to Deep Storage, an initial grace period of one year will be applied. This initial opt-in period will follow these stages:
One year in Archive mode.
One year in Deep Storage mode.
Deletion
Opt-in Summer 2026 and Beyond
If an instructor would like to opt-in to have the course set to Deep Storage starting in Summer 2026 when the process is rolled out, the course will be set to Deep Storage for one year and then moved to the deletion phase. It will follow these stages:
One year in Deep Storage mode.
Deletion
This follows the Deep Storage stage outlined in the Archive Process where a course is set to Deep Storage for one year prior to deletion.