Classic - Import / Export Attendance Data

Process Overview

To assist teachers in taking attendance during periods scheduled by Enriching Students, school absentee data can be imported into Enriching Students.  Once an import is completed, students who have been marked as absent in the school information system will be displayed as absent in Enriching Students. (Note: Only data indicating whether a student is absent or not can be imported into Enriching Students)

Although the terms import and export have different meanings based on which system you are viewing the process from, throughout this document, the process of moving data into Enriching Students will be referred to as “importing”.

Why import Attendance data from your Student Management system?  The following diagram highlights the benefits:

Moving Attendance Data To Enriching Students (Importing to ES)

Importing attendance data requires that you create a .csv file with current attendance data.  The typical time to create this file is after initial attendance has been taken and all absent students have been identified.  Virtually all school information systems have the means to export attendance data, and most have a mechanism whereby an automated process can be created to support this.  The file format supported by Enriching Students is a comma-separated value (.csv).

.CSV file specifications

The .csv file requires a specific file name and a specific column header

File Name

The filename needs to duplicate the following pattern: your-schools-import-key_attendance.csv.  For example: 99b012340f-attendance.  (Note: This import key is in your welcome email and can be found by logging into Enriching Students and going to: https://app.enrichingstudents.com/Admin/Configuration)

Headers

The file needs to have a specific value in the first row (header row): ExternalStudentId

The rest of the rows will contain the data that is to be imported into Enriching Students, essentially one column of data; the student Ids of the students who are absent for the day.

When opened in Excel or another spreadsheet application, the file will be similar to this:

Making File Available to Enriching Students

After the file is created (or as part of the process of creating it) the file needs to be uploaded to the Enriching Students file server.  This can be done with a file transfer application, such as Filezilla.  (To set up your SFTP client tool, please refer to the directions found here)

Whether you choose to move the file to the sftp folder manually or through an automated process, you can use a file transfer client application to view the contents of the folder at any time.

Enriching Students maintains a process that continuously checks the folder for an attendance file, and then imports the data if one exists.

How Incorrect Data is Handled

If an attendance file contains student Ids that do not match any students in your school, these Ids are skipped and the process continues, setting attendance status for the matching student Ids.

A report is sent by email every morning to each school that imported data by means of the automated system.

The report includes details regarding the rows of data that were processed and those that were rejected.

Moving Attendance Data From Enriching Students (Importing into School's SIS)

Although an import of attendance data is limited to whether or not a student is absent, an export from Enriching Students can include all of the data associated with the attendance process, including participation indicators that have been configured by the school.

(Note: These attendance values can be found by logging into Enriching Students and going to Settings >  Attendance Types)

Process Overview

These are the steps users will follow when they wishes to schedule the delivery of an export:

1. Define the export and save it (Admin> Export Appointments)
2. Run the export
3. Download the file
4. Import into your SIS

Attendance Data Export (Defining an Export)

To define an export, you can go to Admin > Export Appointments

On the Export Data page, you will find a number of options that allow you to build a "report" or an export of data.

From here, you define the attendance export that you need, as defined by your SIS.

Once you save this report it will show up in a list of pre-defined reports.  It is from this list that you can then choose to run the report as needed.

Saving an Export Definition

Since a report definition can be save, you will need only to change the date the next time you export the attendance data from Enriching Students.

Typical Export Scenario

Here is an example of how the export is used:

1. A school would like to get the update attendance data from Enriching Students.  This includes the attendance data associated with intervention periods.

An export is defined which includes all of the fields (data values) required by the schools SIS.

The definition is run and the file is downloaded.

The file is then ready to be imported into the SIS