Accudemia: How do I use the Accudemia Data Exchange (ADX)?

Introduction

Accudemia comes with an import utility/tool called Accudemia Data Exchange (ADX). This tool imports information from CSV files into Accudemia so that information and changes to users, courses, classes, enrollment, etc. can be made easily. For example, rather than enrolling each student individually in Accudemia, ADX can upload a list of the students, the courses, and even enroll them all at once. The information in these files needs to be configured in a specific way, depending on the information needing to be uploaded, and is explained in this article. The field specifications and limitations can also be found by clicking here. Once all the data has been checked by our ADX import utility in the CSV file, it can then be imported into ADX, and the changes will be seen in your Accudemia account. This article will explain how to complete the task of creating import jobs in ADX by importing a student information CSV file as an example. Before getting started, you will want to have created your CSV extracts from your SIS following this Accudemia Import Guide.

NOTE: Only System Administrators will be able to perform the actions in this article. Also, while this article uses student information as an example, ADX can also be used for importing much more information that you may not want to have to add manually in the Accudemia account directly.

Step-by-Step

STEP 1: Creating the CSV files

Before getting started, you will want to have created your CSV extracts from your SIS following this Accudemia Import Guide.

STEP 2: Downloading and Installing ADX

1. Log in to Accudemia online using your System Administrator login credentials.

2. From the main menu, navigate to the Administration > Advanced > Import section of Accudemia.

3. At the bottom left side of this page will be a button to click to download the ADX application.

4. Once downloaded, run the setup.exe file to install it on your Windows-based machine.

STEP 3: Build the Import Job in ADX

1. Log in to the ADX app using your Admin credentials (domain, User ID, and password)

Note: This will only use your Accudemia login information since this has not been integrated with the SSO setup for your site.

2. Once logged in, on the top-left, click the Create a new Import Job button in ADX, click Next on the welcome page, and then locate the CSV file and click Next.

3. Match each column from the CSV file to the corresponding column in Accudemia, then click Next.

Important! If you have already started using Accudemia to record attendance, but are just starting with data imports, we recommend using small load test files to ensure that the data does not get uploaded incorrectly for a large number of students and users, which would require our development team's intervention to resolve. We recommend that all import tasks be double-checked by our support team to ensure that there are no mistakes when importing a full load CSV file.

4. Click on each hyperlink to double-check that everything is correct.

5. Ensure that the information is in the correct format and that there's no missing information, then click Next.

If any errors are found, the job can be canceled with no negative repercussions. If this happens, go back to the CSV file and restart from the beginning.

6. Fill in the "Do not create new centers automatically" checkbox and click Next.

The other options on this screen will:

Skip existing users - Only new users' information will be updated. Users already in Accudemia will be bypassed entirely.
Generate a password for new users - If the User > password field in the CSV was blank, a new password will be created for that user.
Inactivate students not being imported - Every student already in Accudemia that is not in the CSV file will be set as inactive.

7. Click on the "Registration/Enrollment" tab and choose "Tutor Assignments," then click Next:

Append to current assignment - New assignments in the CSV file will be added to the tutor assignments in Accudemia.
Overwrite current assignment - New assignments in the CSV file will overwrite all tutor assignments in Accudemia.
Overwrite current assignment and assign all imported tutors to all subject areas - New assignments in the CSV file will overwrite all tutor assignments in Accudemia, and all tutors will be paired with all Subject Areas.

There are a couple of optional choices that can be chosen as well:

Overwrite students' enrollment - All students' enrollments will be edited with the new information in the CSV file. If the additional "Drop all enrollments for students not being imported" option is enabled, then all students' current enrollments will be deleted. Each student will need to be re-enrolled in the system.

Overwrite instructors' assignments - All instructors' assignments will be edited with the new information in the CSV file. If the additional "Drop all assignments for instructors not being imported" option is enabled, then all instructors' current assignments will be deleted. Each instructor will need to be reassigned to new assignments in the system.

8. Give this import job a Name and click Finish to complete this process.

STEP 4: Running the Import job

1. Locate the import using the name in the left-side column, click "View Details" to bring it up in the middle section, and then click the green "Run Job Now" option to import the changes to Accudemia.

Note: If you noticed, there's a "Schedule" section; click the "Enable" option to be taken to Windows Task Scheduler to set the time you want it to run. We recommend that, once the task is created, you open it in Task Scheduler directly if you would like to set the Scheduled Task's Security settings, such as "Run with highest privileges (Basically as an Admin)" or "Run whether the user is logged in or not," when configuring these settings.