Administrators can delete users from the system when the user no longer needs to be in the system. Deleting a user involves removing all personally identifiable information (PII) about the user, and effectively "anonymizing" the user.

Echo360 DOES currently retain section analytics for student users, to meet contractual obligations surrounding historical analytic data. However, the data is not tied to any identifiable user apart from being shown to instructors as "deleted user." If the user is unenrolled from sections prior to deletion, their analytic data and any participation items (notes or Q&A) are also removed from the section(s).

What changes in Echo360 on user deletion

For clarity, below is a list of what happens when a user is deleted from Echo360:

• Deleted users are removed by being anonymized in all sections in which they are enrolled.
• If the deleted user was the Primary Instructor for a section, they are removed and the section has no Primary Instructor (sections do not require them).
• Capture Schedules where a deleted user was identified as the instructor, now have no instructor identified and all future captures generated by the schedule do not have an owner (owner is "None").
• Deleted students' analytic data is retained in their sections and shown on the Analytics tab in the section, but with "Deleted User" as the name.

  We strongly recommend removing the Student's Enrollment in the Course prior to deleting their account from the platform and "anonymizing" their data. This ensures the data at the Section level is removed for that Student prior to being deleted.

• Q&A entries (both student and instructor) are retained and shown with "Deleted User" as the name.
• Video media owned by the deleted user remains but is not owned ("None" shown as owner). Admins can assign a different owner to the media if appropriate. Videos published to sections remain in those class(es).
• Presentations (slide decks) owned by the deleted user also remain in the system but are orphaned. Admins cannot see presentations to change ownership. Presentations published to sections remain in those class(es). To "recover" orphaned presentations, another instructor in sections where item(s) were published can create a copy of each slide deck, the copy of which they now own.
• Deleted users do not appear in any selection lists.
• Deleted users do not appear in the Users page for Admins
• Deleted users DO appear in CSV User Exports for admins, however, their first and last name is blank, and the email address is "hashed" or randomized. They are listed with status "Deleted".

Deleting a user is currently done individually on the Admin's Users page, using the chevron menu located on the right side of each user row.

In addition, once you select to Delete a user, you will be asked to confirm the deletion, as this action cannot be reverted. 

Process suggestions for deleting users

Below are a few suggestions for the best or most streamlined ways of deleting users from Echo360.

• DEACTIVATE users for some period of time prior to deletion; deactivation ensures they cannot log into the system. If you use an LMS, you may also want to deactivate the user in the LMS as well. However, accessing Echo360 through their LMS will provide them with a message that they have been deactivated. If you find the user needs to access Echo360 you can re-activate their account; you cannot restore a deleted account.
• Filter the Users list by Status, to find all Inactive or Invited users. These users are likely the ones you want to begin with when deleting users from Echo360. The figure above shows the users list filtered to show only Invited users.
• Reassign video media ownership prior to deletion. You may find that filtering the Captures list by Owner (instructor) or searching by name/email and finding all the media owned by a user who is to be deleted is easier than filtering by "None" after the user is deleted. Reassigning ownership of necessary videos/captures ensures that the media can be managed by another user as necessary.
• Delete owned video media prior to deletion. As with re-assigning, filtering or searching the Captures list to find media owned by the user who is to be deleted can be useful in determining which videos should be removed from the system entirely. This may be particularly true of Students who may have uploaded personal videos or copyrighted movies to their library that should be deleted.