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Import Users with a CSV/XLS File (Enterprise)

Import Users

Import users into your school from the Users area on the Import tab.

Schoology is optimized to process imports and exports (auto or manual) between the hours of 7 pm to 6 am Eastern Time (ET) or 11 pm to 10 am Greenwich Mean Time (GMT) from Monday to Sunday. It is strongly recommended to perform or schedule all imports, exports, and bulk deletions during this time frame, including manual imports as well as scheduled auto-imports, for optimal performance.

Select the Import File

Select the XLS or CSV file that contains the user information for import. This file usually comes from your organization’s database.

The XLS or CSV file for import must contain the following columns:

  • First Name
  • Last Name
  • Username or E-mail address
  • User Unique ID
  • Role is a required column if you select Use Import File in the Roles menu.
  • School is a required column if you select Use Import File in the Schools menu.

These additional columns are not required, but are available for import files:

  • Schoology User ID
  • First Name (Preferred)
  • Middle Name
  • Name Prefix
  • Position/Job Title
  • Password
  • Gender
  • Grad Year
  • Additional Schools
  • SIS User ID (may be used for organizations importing PowerSchool Learning content only)

  • Password: If you do not include passwords in the file, Schoology will automatically generate a password for the user. As a System Admin, you can view the password in the Edit Users area once the import is complete.
  • Grad Year: Schoology recommends that you include the graduation year when you import users. This column will help to more easily manage groups of students in Schoology. Including this column will allow you to associate users with a particular graduation year, which you may export and filter as needed for subsequent school years.

Roles

Use the Roles menu to assign Schoology roles to the users in your file. If your spreadsheet only has users assigned to a single role, you can select that role in the menu. For example, if the spreadsheet only has students, select Student from the menu.

If, however, your spreadsheet has users who will be assigned different roles in Schoology, select Use Import File from the menu. The Schoology roles display. Enter the equivalent role from your spreadsheet in the fields.

With an Enterprise account, you can add custom roles.

Schools

Follow the same process for the Schools menu as for Roles – if you are adding all users in the spreadsheet to one school in Schoology, select that school in the menu.

If different users are in different schools, select Use Import File from the menu. The schools in your Schoology account display. Enter the equivalent school from your spreadsheet in the fields in the CSV Value column.

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 first name.

Select Override existing settings in Schoology to replace the current user setting in Schoology with the selection from the Preferred Name Display area. If you select this option, you must choose one of the Update existing records options in the Updating section.

Updating

Use the Updating section to locate existing users and update new information from the XLS or CSV file. You can update existing users in one of two ways:

  • User Unique ID– A value created by your organization outside of Schoology. This is usually tied to your Student Information System (SIS).
  • Schoology User ID – A value assigned to users in Schoology.

You can also choose to not update existing records.

Importing an empty column will not remove information from Schoology. For example, if you import a file with no Grad Year information, existing Grad Year information is not removed from Schoology upon import.

Email Conflicts

User accounts with e-mail addresses must have a unique e-mail address. For example, if john@schoology.com exists in School 1, this same email address cannot be associated with a user account in School 2. In the event that a user has created an account using an e-mail address listed in your file, you must decide how you’d like Schoology to handle account creation. You have two options:

  • Don’t allow duplicates—If jsmith@gmail.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 jsmith@gmail.com already exists in the system (either at your school or at another school), selecting this option will create an account with the e-mail prefix, “jsmith” as the username. If your XLS or CSV file already specifies a username (e.g. johnsmith), an account will be created using the specified username.

Email Settings

Select Send activation email if you wish to send login instructions to users created with an email address.

Match Columns

In the next step of the import process, match the information from Schoology Field to each column in the spreadsheet to create user accounts in Schoology.

Confirm the match by verifying the Preview columns list the correct information.

Preview/Confirm

New users are indicated by a label. If a message displays at the top of the screen, note the message in relation to the options you selected for the import file, and adjust your import file if needed. If all information appears correct, click Run to complete the import process.

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