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Auto-Import Users, Courses, Enrollment (Enterprise)

If your school or organization uses an SFTP server, or if you've used an automated import process with other systems, you can enable Schoology to automatically pull data from your SIS on a scheduled basis.

File Setup

SFTP Configuration

Enter the following information for your school or organization's SFTP server:

  • Host
  • Username
  • Port
  • Password

You will also select both a frequency and hour of import, for when your import will be queued for processing. Review Scheduling an Auto Import for things to consider when scheduling an import.

System Admins have the option to Enable notification email(s). This is an optional feature to configure email addresses that receive email summaries upon the completion of each import process. To enable this feature, please contact your Schoology representative. These values will not be saved unless you have also set up the Path to File for Users, Courses, and/or Enrollments. Be sure to enter all of the information on this page before clicking Save Changes. Additionally, the password will not be saved on this page but will need to be re-entered each time a change is made to the path to file for Users, courses, and/or Enrollments.

Each of the areas of configuration displays the information required in the CSV/XLS file for import.

Users

Once you've entered the SFTP information above, you can begin mapping the information from your SIS to Schoology. Users are matched by school UID (unique identifier, e.g. student ID). Email addresses, school UIDs, and usernames must be unique, and each user must have a username or an email address (or both). The option to use the same SFTP as entered above is enabled by default. However, you may choose to use another SFTP server for each automated import.

  • SFTP: Select Same configuration as above to use the settings from the SFTP Configuration area. Uncheck the box to set up a different configuration.
  • Path to File: You may choose to use a directory strategy, rather than a path to file to locate the CSV/XLS files for import.
  • Roles: Input the values from your import file that represents each role.
  • School: Input the values from your import file that represents each school.

Preferred Name

If you include preferred name columns in the import files, select whether to display the preferred name in place of, or in addition to, the users' first names.

Select Override existing settings in Schoology to replace the current user setting in Schoology with the selection from the Preferred Name Display area.

Email Conflicts

In the case that a user has created an account using an email address listed in your file, you must decide how you'd like Schoology to handle account creation.

    • Don't allow duplicates–If john@schoology.com already exists in the system (either at your school or as an individual account), selecting this option will not create another account in Schoology.
    • Create account with Username–If john@schoology.com already exists in the system (either at your school or at another school), selecting this option will create an account with the email prefix, "john" as the username. If your CSV or XLS file already specifies a username (e.g. johnsmith), an account will be created using the specified username.
    • (Only if you have a custom domain or claimed domain) Merge account with your claimed domains–When you select this option all accounts created will either have an email address through the custom or claimed domain or a username. If your organization’s custom or claimed domain is myschool.com and you have users who have emails with a different domain, such as john@schoology.com, selecting this option will create an account using only the username, not the email address with an outside domain.

    Email Settings

    Send Activation Email: If checked, users with a valid email address will receive an email with login instructions. These values may be different for each school or organization, depending on the system from which you're importing information.

    Courses

    Existing courses (matched by course code) will be used if found. Section codes must be unique across courses and grading periods (e.g. a course with code ENG1 can only have one section with code 1a for grading period QTR1.) whereas Section School Codes must be unique across all courses and all grading periods within your school. The option to use the same SFTP as entered above is enabled by default. However, you may choose to use another SFTP server for each automated import.

    • Path to File: You may choose to use a directory strategy, rather than a path to file to locate the CSV/XLS files for import.
    • Grading Periods: Input the values from your import file that represents each grading period. Please note that in your CSV/XLS file for import, grading periods must be separated by piping.
    • School: Input the values from your import file that represents each school.

      You cannot delete a course or section by removing it from the CSV/XLS file and re-importing via auto-import. Instead, you must delete it manually: either from the Courses area or from the Delete tab.

    Course Enrollment

    Courses are matched by course code, section code/section school code, and the selected grading period(s). The option to use the same SFTP as entered above is enabled by default. However, you may choose to use another SFTP server for each automated import.

    • Path to File: You may choose to use a directory strategy, rather than a path to file to locate the CSV/XLS files for import.
    • Enroll based on: Choose the appropriate value from your SIS, either:
      Section School Code (Global unique identifier for the section - must be unique across all courses and sections in the institution, cannot be repeated.)
      –or–
      Section Code (Section Code is used if you cannot generate globally unique identifiers. However, if you use Section Code, then the combination of Course Code, Section Code, and Grading Period must be unique.)
    • Enrollment Type: Input the values that represent each enrollment type from your import file.
    • Grading Periods: (optional field if your SIS data utilizes Section School Code)Input the values from your import file that represents each grading period. Please note that in your CSV/XLS file for import, grading periods must be separated by piping.

    Clear Enrollments

    Enrollments imported via Auto-Import are one-way imports. This means that once a user is enrolled in a Schoology course via import, they will not be un-enrolled by any new imports unless a Clear Enrollments option is enabled in File Settings.

    These options can help ensure a smooth process for importing enrollments at the beginning of the year when course rosters are frequently updated. As you roll over to a new year, we recommend creating new courses, rather than clearing enrollments from the previous year.

    To prevent enrollments from clearing at the end of a grading period, be sure to remove past sections from your import file. These options will not clear enrollments from course sections not listed in the file.

    Checking one of these clear enrollments options only clears enrollments for the sections that have one or more enrollment entries in your import file. If you do not have any users enrolled in a section in the file, the import does not affect the enrollments for that section in Schoology. For example, to clear all students, without having new students to enroll in your file, include only the admin in the import and check the options to clear student enrollments.

    Parents

    Parent-student associations are built by mapping the parent's Unique User ID to the child's Unique User ID in the CSV/XLS file. The option to use the same SFTP as entered above is enabled by default. However, you may choose to use another SFTP server for each automated import.

    Path to File: You may choose to use a directory strategy, rather than a path to file to locate the CSV/XLS files for import.

    Match Columns

    Once you save changes to the File Setup, click the Continue button to match columns or match fields of information.

    Match Columns: Users

    Click Match Columns: Users to view the drop-down menu. Match each Schoology Field to a column in the CSV/XLS file. A preview displays to the right of each row.

    Match Column: Courses

    Click Match Columns: Courses to open the drop-down menu. Match each Schoology Field to a column in the CSV/XLS file. A preview displays to the right of each row.

    Match Columns: Enrollments

    Click Match Columns: Enrollments to open the drop-down menu. Match each Schoology Field to a column in the CSV/XLS file. A preview displays to the right of each row.

    Match Columns: Parents

    Click Match Columns: Parents to open the drop-down menu. Match each Schoology Field to a column in the CSV/XLS file. A preview displays to the right of each row.

    Status Log

    The Status Log displays import success messages and error messages. To view details for a particular log, click the Job Title of the logged activity. If an error appears in the log, click the link in the Rows Affected column for more information about the error.

    Although you will schedule an hour for queuing your import in Greenwich Mean Time (GMT), note that the Status Log displays the Time your import ran in your organization's local time zone.

    The error log that displays shows the first 50 rows that are affected by the error.

    Click Download Full Report to download a CSV file containing the information about the error and all the affected rows.

    In this example, you would click 150 rows in the Status Log to open a window with the first 50 rows listed; and then click Download Full Report to download a CSV containing all 150 affected rows.

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