Manual Rostering

In this Article

• Manual Rostering Process 
• CSV Roster Formats 
• Updating Rosters 
• Creating SourceIDs for your Rostering CSV Files
• Using Command Prompt/Terminal to Send your CSV Files

What is Manual Rostering?

Manual rostering is the intended method for all Google Single Sign-On (Google SSO) users as well as those logging in to the Great Minds® website with their email and password.

Manual rostering (not Google SSO) is for districts that do not have Clever and/or use G-Suite for Education. Schools using just Manual Rostering (not Google SSO) must have working email inboxes that allow invitation emails from greatminds.org. Google SSO schools will not receive emails and do not need a functioning inbox, only a Google email address. In Manual Rostering each user will receive an email with their unique log in info when onboarding is complete. This article provides an overview of the technical aspects of rostering manually, intended for district and school technical administrators. 

Manual Rostering Process

1. Great Minds staff will contact you to provide login credentials for SFTP transfer of the files. The CSV file template needed is located at the bottom of the article. (This template is a partial implementation of the OneRoster format.) Necessary information include email addresses, names, and class information. (See below for specifics.)
2. Fill out the 6 CSV template files and send it to Great Minds through the information provided in your initial credential email. You can send through command prompt on your computer or use a third-party SFTP program such as Filezilla or PuTTY.
3. Great Minds digital implementation specialists, who have been approved to handle personally identifiable information, will check for correct formatting and upload rosters to Amazon Web Service servers. If there is an error with your files, a DIS member will reach out to the provided tech admin to make any changes or corrections.
4. When the process is complete, Google SSO users will be able to log in using the Google Sign On button on digital.greatminds.org.  Students, teachers, and administrators who are manually rostered with their school or district email addresses will receive an email from Great Minds with a unique password and a login link to activate their account. Once logged in, users will be prompted to create a new password. Users can then log in to the Great Minds® website (digital.greatminds.org) directly with their email address and password.

Creating CSVs for Manual Rostering

District administrators will need to submit six separate CSVs. Descriptions of each file are below along with a video walkthrough on how to create them. In addition, detailed field descriptions are in the file attached to this article. Please note file names and field names on each csv file are case sensitive and should match exactly to the field names below.

district.csv contains the ID and name of your district. This CSV simply creates your district in our system.

schools.csv contains the IDs and names of your schools with optional location information. This CSV adds your specific schools to our platform. Please only include schools that are planning to use the products you have purchased.

classes.csv lists the IDs and names of your sections or classes in each school and connects them to a particular school. The schools listed here must also be shown in the Schools.csv.

users.csv is where you will list the name, email, and role of all of your users (students and staff). The four possible roles are student, teacher, school_admin, and district_admin. NOTE: If you intend to use Google for authentication, make sure to provide the district Google email addresses for your users in this roster file. If you are manual rostering, the emails you provide must be real and must go to an open inbox as each user needs to be able to receive the activation email. 

enrollments.csv connects all your students and teachers to their respected classes. Multiple teachers can be associated with the same class, and teachers and students can be associated with classes in multiple schools. NOTE: There needs to be one and only one primary teacher per class. You indicate the primary teach using the TRUE value. Administrators do not belong on this csv file as they cannot be assigned to classes.

admins.csv connects your school administrators to the schools they are associated with and connects them to a specific role. (Choices are principal, vice principal, and other). If an administrator is associated with multiple schools (e.g, curriculum coach), repeat the administrator's name, associating it with each school. District administrators do not go on this csv file as they belong to every school in your district.

Updating Rosters 

After the initial rostering is complete, you can make changes at any time by uploading a new version of the files to the provided SFTP and contacting the Digital Implementation Support Team (info@greatminds.org) to alert them that a new file is available.

When making updates, please adhere to the following guidelines to prevent loss of data:

• The new version of any file cannot be the same as your first upload. For example, in your first upload the file was named users.csv, the next upload cannot be users.csv. You can rename the updated file as users_new.csv or users_date.csv instead.
• Submit a full upload of your roster file every time you make changes. Do not submit only changed or new data as that will result in the deletion of users or classes.
• Do not change sourceIds for existing entries in the roster files. Changes to sourceIds will be processed as a deletion of the original entry and an addition of the new entry.
• Changes will be processed as follows:
  • NEW entries will result in added users, classes, schools, etc.
  • DELETED entries will result in deleted users, classes, schools, etc.
  • CHANGED entries will result in changes to the user information, classes, enrollments, etc. 
• Please note that files do not get automatically updated (for Manual or Google rostering) on our end. The changes must be made manually by a Digital Implementation Specialist and a resync will need to be done. It can take 3-5 business days to reflect the changes on your account.

Creating SourceIDs for Your Rostering CSV Files

When completing the rostering CSV templates, please note that each CSV (district, schools, classes, users, enrollments, and admins) has a field for a sourceId. These sourceIds are needed only to uniquely identify each item in your CSV; they are not used outside the rostering process. SourceIds can be letters and/or numbers and do not need to be complicated.

Example

District CSV sourceId: This does not need to match any ID given to you by Great Minds. In this example, the district has been assigned a sourceId of 1.

Schools CSV sourceId: Now that we've used 1 for the district sourceId, we cannot use 1 for any other sourceId in any CSV. The example below uses school1, school2, and so on for the school sourceIds; the district sourceId (1) is referenced in the districtSourceId column. 

Class CSV sourceId: Each class needs its own unique sourceId too. In this example, Class1 is the sourceId assigned to the class. The class is matched to the correct school by referencing the schoolSourceId from the previous file.

Users CSV sourceId: Each user (student, teacher, admin) should have a unique sourceId. These ID cannot match any sourceId used in the district or school CSV files. In this example, students and teachers were given unique IDs such as StudentA or TeacherA, but these could be any combination of letters and/or numbers, including internal user IDs already assigned by the school or district.

Enrollment CSV sourceId: In this CSV you will create a new sourceId for each enrollment and then use the User CSV and Class CSV sourceId’s to match the users to their correct classes.

Admin CSV sourceId: In this CSV you will create administrators for your schools. Create a unique sourceId for each admin and then use the admin's userSourceId to match with the correct schoolSourceId.

The important thing to note is that the sourceId's do not need to be long or complicated, just unique. Student ID numbers or other identifiers from your district are great sourceId’s.

Using Command Prompt/Terminal to Send Your CSV Files

Once you complete your CSV files, you will need to send them back to the digital implementation specialists at Great Minds to complete the rostering process. It's best to use Command Prompt (Windows) or Terminal (Mac) for these file transfers.

1. Launch one of the following programs on your computer: 

Windows Users (minimum requirement: Windows 10): To open Command Prompt, click the Windows symbol in the bottom left corner of your screen, and search "cmd" to open the Command Prompt window.

Mac Users: Open the Finder and type "terminal" in the search field. Select the application called Terminal to open the Terminal window. 

  2. Type in "sftp username@securetransfer.greatminds.org"replacing "username" with the username your digital implementation specialist provided like shown below:

4. Once complete, press enter. 

NOTE: At this step the program may ask you a yes or no question about security. Type yes (your answer will be hidden) and click enter. 

1. You will receive a prompt to enter the password your digital implementation specialist provided. The password is hidden, so it will seem that you are not typing anything like shown below. After typing in the password, press enter. 
   
2. Once your password is accepted, you are connected to the Great Minds SFTP site. Your prompt should look like the photo below:
3. Use the command (put+ Space bar + Enter key)-  put tap space bar tap Enter key to see a list of files in your folder on the Great Minds site. Example: put  
4. Use the command(get filename.csv)-get tap space bar and type the name of the file you want to download to your local machine. Make sure to type the file name as you see above along with file extension example- get users.csv