M34 - Bulk enrolments

What is it?

This option allows course Admins and Tutors to bulk enrol students into their Moodle course using just their student's UCL email address or UCL userids. At the same time they can create groups and allocate them to each student.

Why use it?

This can be useful before the start of session, when Portico enrolments may not yet have begun but enrolments are required.  It also allows you to bulk import students into groups with ease- the process will autocreate a groups if they do not already exist on your Moodle course.

Who can use it?

Course admins and tutors

Before I start...

You will a complete list of the students' email address or userids.

How do I set one up?

Create your CSV

In order to upload your students successfully, you will need to create a CSV file with the students details. CSVs are simple to create - one way is in a spreadsheet package, making sure to save it as a .csv file-type.

At minimum, your CSV file should contain one column for the main student identifier, usually their UCL email address but it can also be their UCL userid.
Ensure you have column labels - this is because Moodle anticipates these and so ignores the first row of CSV file. In other words, don't put any actual student data in your file's top row. If you are using Email then put 'email', if you are using user IDs then put 'userid'
If you want to enrol the students into Groups, include a second column which gives the group name for each student. Be careful to type these exactly. Give it a column heading 'group'.

Enrol the Students

In the Settings block on your course, click Users > Bulk enrolments

1. Go to the Block and select Bulk Enrolments
2. In the next page select Choose a file and upload your CSV file.
3. Make sure Role to assign is left as student
4. Set First column contains to reflect they type of data you have used in your spreadsheet, either the students' Email address or UCL userids (Login). Ensure this field is not kept as ID number or your upload will fail.
5.  If you need to create groups, ensure Create group(s) if needed is set to Yes
6. If you would like to create groupings in your course, based on the groups that the students will been placed into, ensure Create grouping(s) if needed is kept to yes.  If you do not want to create groupings, ensure this is set to No
7. To receive an email report confirming which students have been enrolled and which groups they have been placed into, keep Send me a mail report set to Yes.
8. Click Enrol them to my course.
9. Check the students have been enrolled in their groups by going to the Settings menu and under Course Administration click on Users then Groups.
10. You should see the groups listed, followed by the number of students in each group in brackets.

You can also bulk unenrol students from your course by clicking on Bulk unenrolments in the block, and following the instructions above.

Caution

It does require that the students you are enrolling have already logged into Moodle, so it could not be used to enrol first year students before they had never used Moodle.

Examples and case studies

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Questions & Answers

 Q.  I am getting an error message when I upload the CSV file to Moodle?

A.  Check the file is a .csv and not a .xls file, and ensure in the First column contains field is set to UCL Userid or Email address

Further information

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Create your CSV

In order to upload your students successfully, you will need to create a CSV file with the students details. CSVs are simple to create - one way is in a spreadsheet package, making sure to save it as a .csv file-type.
At minimum, your CSV file should contain one column for the main student identifier, usually their UCL email address but it can also be their UCL userID.
Ensure you have column labels - this is because Moodle anticipates these and so ignores the first row of CSV file. In other words, don't put any actual student data in your file's top row. If you are using Email then put 'email', if you are using user IDs then put 'userid'
If you want to enrol the students into Groups, include a second column which gives the group name for each student. Be careful to type these exactly. Give it a column heading 'group'.

Enrol the Students

In the Settings block on your course, click Users > Bulk enrolments

1. Go to the Block and select Bulk Enrolments
2. In the next page select Choose a file and upload your CSV file.
3. Make sure Role to assign is left as student
4. Set First column contains to reflect they type of data you have used in your spreadsheet, either the students' Email address or UCL userids (Login). Ensure this field is not kept as ID number or your upload will fail.
5.  If you need to create groups, ensure Create group(s) if needed is set to Yes
6. If you would like to create groupings in your course, based on the groups that the students will been placed into, ensure Create grouping(s) if needed is kept to yes.  If you do not want to create groupings, ensure this is set to No
7. To receive an email report confirming which students have been enrolled and which groups they have been placed into, keep Send me a mail report set to Yes.
8. Click Enrol them to my course.
9. Check the students have been enrolled in their groups by going to the Settings menu and under Course Administration click on Users then Groups.
10. You should see the groups listed, followed by the number of students in each group in brackets.

You can also bulk unenrol students from your course by clicking on Bulk unenrolments in the block, and following the instructions above.