Batch Managing User Data

To perform batch management of user data, the admin will need to navigate to the Manage Users page and select the Batch User Data button.

The Batch User Data dialog will provide various batch operations from which to choose.

Each function requires an import file to drive the process. The source of this input could come from various places, such as, your HRIS system, manual input, or data from a CourseMill report that you previously ran.

The file must be formatted as a tab-delimited text file (.txt or .csv). Before actual processing of the file, you can run an error check to verify that the file is properly formatted.

This document concentrates on the tab-delimited text file.  For further instruction on LDAP, see Working with LDAP and SS0.

Let’s review in more detail the six types of batch operations that are available.

Importing User Data (New Users or Modifications to Existing Users)

You can add new user accounts by importing users from a file that contains the entire user’s profile data. 

Once added, you can also update existing users using the same import approach. Based on the fields that are available to import, you can also do the following:

• Bulk Enroll students in a course, curriculum, or session.

• Bulk grade a set of students with a score or completion status

• Inactivate a mass number of users

• Load history of course completions (see Creation of Historical Records)

Exporting User Data

You can download user data to a text file (.txt) that you can save and open from your desktop.  Once CourseMill displays the data on your screen, click Save Page As from your toolbar and save it as the text (.txt) file.  You can then open it with Excel by designating it as a tab delimited file in order for it to display properly.

This allows you to easily make mass changes to your user population (by changing values in the excel file) and then uploading them back in by using the Import User Data operation.

Bulk Unenroll Users

You can unenroll users from a course/curriculum by importing users from a file that contains the course/curriculums that you want to unenroll them from.  This is typically only used when you have mistakenly enrolled them in a course or curriculum.

Bulk Delete Users

You can delete users in mass by importing a file with the user IDs you wish to delete.  Deleting users will completely erase all history of the students. Deactivating the users and then archiving them is recommended.

Bulk Archive Users

You can bulk archive users in mass by importing a file with the users you wish to archive. If you archive students, they will not appear on any lists within your interface. However, there is now a new general report called List of Archived Students.

There are two other reports that will allow you to select from archived students. These are the Transcript Report and the Completions Report. Both have check boxes where you can select this option. For further documentation on reporting, see Reporting.

Bulk Restore Users

You can bulk restore users in mass by importing a file with the user IDs you wish to restore. It will restore the users back to whatever state (active/inactive) they were archived in.

When a user is restored that is in a SubOrg which is tied to a course or curriculum which automatically enrolls a student, the student will not be automatically enrolled in a course at the time they are restored, but they will get enrolled when the evening batch job runs.

Setting up the Batch Process

Anyone who has been given rights to import user data (admin, instructor, or reporter) can follow these steps to process the tab-delimited file.

Open Manage Users on the left navigation pane and click Batch User Data button. The dialog box (below) opens.

Select the Org ID in the Org ID drop-down list, select one of the six operations available in the Batch Operation field and click Browse to navigate and select the file. To run an error check on the tab-delimited file before processing it, select Error Check Data in the Process Data field. To process the file, select Process Data in the Process Data field. Click the Process button. The Error Check and the Process Data will display the number of errors encountered or records added. If a user records already exist, the information will be updated according to the information in the file.

Requirements of the Tab-Delimited Management File

Each operation explained above will require an import file be created that CourseMill will then process according to the operation you select. The table below shows the allowable field names in the import file and which operation requires which fields to be imported. Those fields highlighted in Red are mandatory for each operation.  The Bulk Export will export all the user profile fields listed.   These fields must be in a tab-delimited format similar to Excel.  The following is a list of additional rules that apply:

• Data items must be separated by Tabs (a tab-delimited file)

• Each row represents one user

• The first row must contain field names used to locate the corresponding columns within the data. The order of the fields is not important.

• If a header field name in the import file does not match one of the first four CourseMill column names as shown below – you will get an error. If it does not match any of the others, you will not get an error message and the field will not be updated.

• Mandatory fields are marked with red ‘Y‘, Highly Recommended Fields are marked a green ‘Y’, optional Fields are marked with ‘Y’

Column name	Description	User ImportBulk Add or Mod	User ImportBulk Enroll	Bulk Unenroll	User Import Bulk Grade	Bulk Archive or Restore	Bulk Delete	Bulk Export
OrgID	The user's organization  *	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y
ID (or StudentID)	The user's user ID  *	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y
LastName	The user's last name  *	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y
FirstName	The user's first name  *	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y
Password	The user's password – when importing a user for the first time, you can create a password by supplying this field.  If you do not supply this field in the import file, the default password (manage property ImportDefaultPassword will be inserted as the user’s password. On export, CourseMill will provide a field for the password but does not insert it in that field. When resetting current users’ passwords, use something other than the default password. If you do not, the password will not be modified.	Y						Y
PasswordResetType	Specifies what type of password changing restrictions are allowed. Options are: N = Password Never Expires X = User cannot change password T = Password Expires Every xx Days where xx is the number you put in the managed property DefaultPasswordExpiration M = User must change password at next login The user setting will then switch to either N or T depending on the value in the managed property DefaultPasswordExpiration. If DefaultPasswordExpiration is 0, it will switch to N; if value is greater than 0, it will switch to T.	Y						Y
EmailID	The user's email address	Y						Y
MiddleInitial	The user's middle initial	Y						Y
Address	The user's address	Y						Y
City	The user's city	Y						Y
State	The user's state	Y						Y
Zip	The user's zip	Y						Y
Country	The user's country	Y						Y
Phone	The user's phone	Y						Y
HireDate	Date yyyy-mm-dd format. On export, it may also insert a time into the field depending on what type of database you are using.	Y						Y
LangPref	The language preferred by the User. Values are: USA – English BRA - Brazilian Portuguese DEU – German ESP – Spanish FRA – French HUN – Hungarian POL – Polish ZHS - Simplified Chinese	Y						Y
SubOrg0-15	Values for the custom fields that were defined when the organization was added. For detailed information about defining Sub-Org fields, see Adding an Organization in the Help.	Y						Y
GuestFlag	Is user a Guest? Values can be: "y","yes", or "1" for True. "n", "no", or 0" for False. There really is no need to ever import a guest as you will typically only have one, at most. Once a user is set to Guest, it can never be changed to anything else. If a user is already a reporter or instructor, it can’t be changed to a guest. This field is exported as GroupFlag.	Y						Y
InstructorFlag	Is user a instructor? Values can be: "y","yes", or "1" for True. "n", "no", or 0" for False.	Y						Y
ReporterFlag	Is user a reporter? Values can be: "y","yes", or "1" for True. "n", "no", or 0" for False.	Y						Y
TermsOfUseAccept	Date user accepted the Terms of Use if your organization is using this. Depending on the database you are using the time might also be exported.	Y						Y
PersonalInfo0-15	Values for the custom fields that were defined when the organization was added. For detailed information about defining Sub-Org fields, see Adding an Organization in the Help.	Y						Y
CurrPermissions	Permission given to update curriculums: If allowing more than 1 value, separate with commas. Cre Add curriculum Mod Modify curriculum Del Delete curriculum Reg Register in curriculum	Y						Y
CoursePermissions	Permission given to update courses: If allowing more than 1 value, separate with commas. Cre Add course Ses Add Session Mod Modify course Del Delete course Reg Register in course Imp Import Course Content Gbk Gradebook	Y						Y
UserPermissions	Permission given to update users: If allowing more than 1 value, separate with commas. Cre Add user Mod Modify user Del Delete user Reg Register a student Imp Import user data Gbk Gradebook Pwd Change password	Y						Y
ActiveFlag	Is user active? Values can be: "y","yes", or "1" for True. "n", "no", or 0" for False.	Y						Y
ReportsTo	The user ID of their reporter	Y						Y
UserNotes	Notes to be associated with the user	Y						Y
CurrID	Curriculum into which the student should be enrolled or un-enrolled.		Y	Y	Y
CourseID	CourseID of the course into which the user should be enrolled or un-enrolled. It is best if the course has at least one content item.		Y	Y	Y
SessionID	SessionID of the session into which the user should be enrolled or un-enrolled		Y	Y	Y
EnrollDate	Enrollment date (yyyy-mm-dd) for course/curr		Y
PassDate	Pass Date (yyyy-mm-dd) for the course/curr				Y
CourseStatus	Any valid SCORM course status (including blank), such as: Not Attempted Incomplete Completed Passed Exempted Failed Browsed				Y
Score	The score a user received in a session or course (not a curriculum). (0-100)				Y
Comment	The comment for reason of grade change in the Gradebook as to why you changed the grade.				Y

Tab-Delimited File Examples

Import a user

Register a student to Curriculum/Course/Session

Pass a student on Curriculum/Course/Session

Bulk Un-Enroll

Bulk Delete or Archive/Restore

If you have leading zeros (0), Excel will truncate off the zero leading to a failed data load.Save the field as a text field to retain the zeros. All date columns must be in YYYY-MM-DD format. If a data column from the host system does not contain a value for each user, ‘ -None-‘ should be inserted to avoid blank or null data columns. When loading SubOrg values on a batch import, be sure the values match the values you have set up in your Org.  If you import bad data, the user will end up having bad data. If an organization is setup to have ‘External Org Email’, then the email address becomes a required field for all new users and is enforced during the manual creation of new users within the Manage Users area of CourseMill. But, if an email address is not supplied with a new user in a batch load, the user will be loaded with no error on the email address.  It will only require the email address if you are updating their user profile within CourseMill.

Creation of Historical Records

Historical student completion records from another LMS can be imported into CourseMill. Here are some points to consider.

• Be sure all users already exist in CourseMill. For those users not currently in CourseMill (both active and inactive), load them into CourseMill with as much information as possible (suborg values, personal information if any, demographics such as address, etc.) prior to importing any of their historical course data.

• Be sure the course ids and content already exists in CourseMill. If they do not, you will have to create the courses prior to importing any of the historical course completion data. Each course must have at least one content item (this could be as simple as a Graded-No-Content attendance record)

  If any of the courses have due dates and/or re-enrollment days, the recommendation is to turn them off (remove) prior to the historical data import. Once that is done, proceed with the following steps.

• Import the student’s historical course enrollments first, using the old enrollment date (courses must already exist in CourseMill). Performing the enrollments first is a good way to ensure the data was created as expected. This file can then be used as a template to perform the next step importing the completions statuses, pass dates and scores.

  Be sure the course enrollment notification is turned off so the emails do not go out for this history. Check all other notifications as well.

• Next, import the student’s historical course completion statuses, pass date and scores.

  .When importing historical records with students that have multiple completion statuses for a single course (a repeated course over a period of time), import with the oldest record to newest.

• If a course previously had Due Dates or re-enrollment days, you can now put them back in (turn on) on the appropriate courses. The next time the user logs in the due date will get calculated on the newest course completion record.

  .Warning: Failure to remove due dates on a course prior to importing the historical data will result in incorrect data entered in the expiration date. Incorrect ordering for the same Course ID: OrgID ID LastName FirstName CourseID SessionID PassDate CourseStatus Score TestOrg Ipra1234 Prather Linda History101 869 2013-02-15 Completed 100 TestOrg Ipra1234 Prather Linda History101 567 2012-06-30 Completed 82   Correct ordering for the same Course ID: OrgID ID LastName FirstName CourseID SessionID PassDate CourseStatus Score TestOrg Ipra1234 Prather Linda History101 567 2012-06-30 Completed 82 TestOrg Ipra1234 Prather Linda History101 869 2013-02-15 Completed 100

Using the Batch Process to Merge Students

A batch import can also be used in merging two students into one. To do this, use the following file format:

• StudentID – Represents the resulting student ID (the student ID you want to keep).

• LastName – Represents the resulting last name of the student.

• FirstName – Represents the resulting first name of the student.

• MergeOldID – The old student ID and all its data that you wish to merge into the student ID you are keeping.

Scheduling the Batch Process

An import file can be loaded on an automatically scheduled timeframe that is suitable to your needs. Once the file has been completed and tested, it can be submitted to the CourseMill scheduler to process on a nightly basis.If the import file is coming from another system (like an HRIS or ERP system), the admin will need to perform two (2) tasks:

Change Manage Properties relating to Import

After modifying any Manage Properties option, make sure to click the Apply Changes button in order to apply the changes to the system.

Manage Scheduled Tasks related to Import

The admin will need to schedule the import by clicking on Admin Tasks > Manage Scheduled Tasks as shown below.

Automated Scheduling of Batch Process

Once the file has been tested and run once to ensure proper processing, it can be submitted to the CourseMill scheduler to process on a nightly basis. If using the CourseMill hosting services, an SFTP username and password will be provided to allow you to upload the file on a scheduled basis. Please contact your Account Rep or Trivantis Support (support@trivantis.com) to request these credentials.

Multiple import files are permitted each day. The CourseMill scheduler will need to be aware of the incoming files so it can process each independently. To set the scheduler, review the functionality in Admin Tasks -> Manage Scheduled Tasks.

Data loads are cumulative, so each time the load file is received from the host system, CourseMill will match the ID, FirstName and LastName then overwrite the information from the import file. CourseMill does not save an audit trail of the data prior to each load.

Be sure the import.txt file is located in the directory identified in Managed Properties. If the file is not found in the directory, the person listed under the Admin email will receive the message, Error opening file /usr/file/home/import.txt. Mapping from an HRIS or ERP system requires the internal IT group create a download data file to comply with this data format. You might want to set up another Org for testing, where you can process these imports. Important: If changes are made to the Organizational structure and imported into CourseMill, the automated enrollment rules in Curriculum or Course must be reviewed for changes. In addition, if Sub_Org values are used for Reporter assignments these will need to be reviewed for possible changes.

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