Importing Learners in a CTF

Modified on Mon, 2 Sep at 2:42 PM

Please note, demo account customers should not import their own learner data. We have provided dummy learners for the purpose of demonstration.

CTF is the recommended file type to import Learner data.

CTF types

Before following the steps below, first ask your School Administrator to export a partial CTF by year for the class or year group(s) required or a full CTF not including assessment data from your MIS system and save it as a common transfer file (CTF). Partial CTFs can be used but we have noticed some MIS systems do not contain the year group in this export and this is a mandatory field for our product.

Given the number of MIS systems, options to export within them and despite there being support in the platform for handling many of these, there can occasionally be issues with the files exported.

Destination

To export a CTF a destination is required.

For the destination you can either right click on LA/other and select England or alternatively right click in school and select your own school's name.

Importing learners with a CTF

Log into NOA and select Administration on the left-hand side menu.
Select Learners from the menu.

Select Import.

To import a CTF file select the Select File to Import button.

Select Browse and select the CTF file.

The selected file name will display - double check this is the correct file.

The learners in the file will be displayed in a table below.

If the file and data in it are valid, a notification that your file is ready to be saved appears and a ‘Save & Finish’ button is present. Select Save & Finish to import your learners.

Should the error message The file type is not valid' display then double-check the file extension which for a CTF must be.xml.

A message will display if errors have been found in the import.

A screenshot of a computer
Description automatically generated

Details of any errors can be found in the status column of the table. Entries with errors will be sorted to show first.

The message will state either:

Data missing

Data out of range - if the data imported is not in an acceptable format.

Details of the actual fields with the error will also be shown to make it as straightforward as possible to correct any erroneous data.

If a learner has data missing and out of range data, then the missing data will be flagged on the first import and out of range data will be flagged when reimported.

Please refer to guidance on acceptable data entry requirements.

When the learner data is ready to be saved select Save and finish.
The save and finish button will only display when data is correct and can be imported into the portal.

Be aware, if the learner details already exist with the same name and date of birth saving will overwrite the previous data.

The following video takes you step by step through the importing process.

If you are unable to export a CTF from your MIS, it is possible to import learner data as an Excel file.