Transactional data includes any content created by participants during the a term. Typical examples include:

• The values in your gradebook for a particular term.
  
• Assignments submitted by students.
  
• Quiz attempts by students showing each choice made (vs. just the net result as is shown in the gradebook)
  
• Participant interactions on a discussion forum.
  
• Participant interactions on a wiki page.
  
• Course analytics registering logins and other activities.
  

Canvas backups exclude transactional data. That is, there is no way to capture a snapshot of the internal state of your course to preserve it for future restoration. Canvas courses at SFU do remain available to instructors for a 12 month, extended period, after the end of a term and unless a student has explicitly removed an assignment file via eportfolio activity, all content should be accessible to you. However, instructors often like to keep copies of transactional data of one kind or another, so this section explains how you can do this.

It is a good idea to back up your grades, particularly if you are importing grades from excel.

1. Click Grades on the course menu.

2. Select the course you wish to back up. 

3. Click on the gear icon.

4. Click on Download scores (.csv).

5. You will see a pop-up window.

6. Select Save File and click on the OK button.