Recently, we received a user request to import a team from a spreadsheet that contained student ids and names. This is nothing out of the ordinary because we offer a number of standard import services to our hosted customers, one of which is importing a team. It requires a spreadsheet populated with team site, team name, student id and student name. It occurred to me that there was a way for the user to do this herself and not incur the charge for a one-time import. She could use the Import Roster feature (introduced in 6.3) to load the students to a session, then use a Roster report on that session with the Output to Team file type (introduced in 6.2) to load those students on to a team.
Here’s how it works:
She added a scheduled session to her site with a start date that occurred in the past. This is important because she did not want the session to appear on the Schedule in Learner. The course she used was immaterial because she was going to delete the session as soon as the team was built.
After she added the session, she went to the roster tab of that session and downloaded the import roster template. She copied the student ids and student names from her other spreadsheet into the import roster template in the appropriate columns. Note: It is important not to change the names or the order of the columns in the import template, as this will break the import. Finally, she imported the roster into the session.
After the students were imported into the roster, she ran a Scheduled Session Roster report on that session. On the Where tab, she chose the File Type: Output to Team and chose the team on which she wanted to add the students. She used the default Append option and the current date as the assignment date. She ran the report and the output to team file type caused all the students on that report to be loaded into the selected team with the current date as the assignment.
Once the team was populated with the desired students, she deleted the scheduled session.
I just thought this was a cool little trick that might come in handy one day when Enroll Group doesn’t fit the bill. If you’re not familiar with these features, search the blog for Import Roster and Output to Team for more detailed information.
Mr. Welder’s career is founded in traditional instructional design and computer-based training development. He is a certified Development Dimensions International facilitator, a Kirkpatrick Certified Evaluator and facilitator of the Ohio State University curriculum development program. In addition to working in industry, Mr. Welder has held adjunct faculty positions at Bowling Green State University, Ohio and the College of the Mainland, Texas. Mr. Welder has been published in both Training Magazine as well as US Business Review.