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Importing learners to a portal
Importing learners to a portal

A step by step guide for importing learners into a portal using the Riipen importer

Arnaud Z avatar
Written by Arnaud Z
Updated over a week ago

When importing a learner into a portal, several outcomes will occur:

  • If the learner does not yet have a Riipen account, one will be provisioned for them and the user will receive an email notification letting them know their account has been created with next steps for them to take.

  • The learner will be added to the portal as a learner.

Any existing learners, or memberships to the portal will be unaffected.

Import template

Riipen accepts comma separated value (CSV) files for importing learners to portals. Download the template file attached to this article which will then need to be populated with your data and imported back to Riipen:

Glossary of required fields:

  • Email

    • Type: String

    • Description: This is the primary identifier for each user in Riipen. This must be unique for each learner. This field is case insensitive.

Glossary of optional fields:

  • First Name

    • Type: String

    • Description: The learner's first name.

  • Last Name

    • Type: String

    • Description: The learner's last name.

  • Identifier

    • Type: String

    • Description: This is a background identifier attribute which is used to identify a learner against your external data source such as a student information system. This value is not shown to or used by the learner in any way, but is useful for reporting purposes.

  • Level Name

    • Type: String

    • Description: The name of the program level your institution has the learner enrolled in. Possible values may include: Certificate, Bachelors, Masters, Doctorate, Technical Diploma, etc.

  • Year Name

    • Type: String

    • Description: The name of the year in which the learner is currently in for their enrolled program. Possible values may include: First Year, Freshman, Second Year, Sophomore, Masters, Doctorate, Alumni, etc.

  • Major Name

    • Type: String

    • Description: The learner's primary major.

  • Major Names

    • Type: Array[String]

    • Description: The learner's secondary declared major names. If more than one value, separate values with a semi-colon.

  • Minor Names

    • Type: String

    • Description: The learner's declared minor names. If more than one value, separate values with a semi-colon.

  • GPA Cumulative

    • Type: Float

    • Description: The learner's cumulative GPA at your institution.

  • GPA Department

    • Type: Float

    • Description: The learner's departmental GPA at your institution. Non-numeric values are not permitted.

  • Start Date

    • Type: Date

    • Description: The learner's start date for their enrolled program at your institution.

  • End Date

    • Type: Date

    • Description: The learner's end date for their enrolled program at your institution.

  • Currently Attending

    • Type: Boolean

    • Description: Whether or not the learner is currently enrolled at your institution.

  • Ethnicity

    • Type: String

    • Description: The learner's ethnicity.

  • Gender

    • Type: String

    • Description: The learner's gender.

  • Disability

    • Type: String

    • Description: Any disability of the learner.

Extract and transform your data

After you have the Riipen import template, your next step will largely be dependent on where you are wanting to import your data from. This may be from a learning management system, or a student information system. In either case you will want to:

  • Export your data from your external system.

  • Transform that data into the provided template to match its format.

Import your file

The following steps can be completed by administrator of your portal.

  1. Click "Settings" below the "Portal" group in the main navigation.

  2. Select the "Imports" tab.

  3. Click the "New" button

  4. In the presented form, select:

    1. Type - Portal learners

    2. Source file - Upload your import file you have previously generated

  5. Click "Submit"

Your import file will now begin to be pre-processed. Riipen will check each record in your file for potential errors including formatting issues or missing data. You will be able to see the progress of this pre-processing on your screen now.

Once pre-processing is complete you will be shown each record of your import file and it's pre-import status which shows you how the data was interpreted by Riipen. This is a good time to check over all your data to make sure it looks correct and you haven't made any mistakes in your original import file.

Once you are happy with your import records, you can then run your import by pressing the "Run" button.

Monitor your import

While your import is running, you will be able to see it's progress on the screen along with each individual record with its accompanying import status which is either Success or Error. While the import is running you can safely navigate away from this page and return to it at any point to check the import status.

Once your import has finished running, Riipen will email you to let you know with a link back to your import so you can view the final status.

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