How to prepare a data file for placement students

This information is about file preparation for importing details of students into a placement group to use with the Oxford Online Placement Test or the Oxford Young Learners Placement Test.

  • In your file, the column headings, and the order of them, MUST be exactly as follows:
    Student ID
    Last name
    First name
    Email
    User name
    Password
    Date of birth
    First language
    Gender
  • Your file MUST contain the first 9 column headings above.
  • You MUST enter data in all cells in the following columns: Student ID, Last name, First name and Email.
  • For the Oxford Online Placement Test, user names and passwords can be automatically generated by the system, or can be set in your file. For the Young Learners Placement Test, user names and passwords will be automatically generated and these cells of your file should be left blank.
  • Your file spreadsheet MUST be saved as either:
    - an excel file (.xls)
    - a comma separated file (.csv)
    - a Unicode (.txt)
  • We recommend that you use the template that can be downloaded in step 2 of the Data import checklist. Make sure you remove the sample data from the template first.
  • Any spreadsheet you import will be checked by the system when you import it. Errors will be highlighted. They must be corrected in your file before the import will be allowed.
  • Please note that spaces before or after the data in your spreadsheet will stop your file from importing. These symbols cannot be imported and should not be included in your file: &, < or >.

Column headings

Notes

1

Student ID

Mandatory – these must be entered in each row in your file and they must be unique for each student.
This can be anything (00123, 00124, psmith, ps12, etc).

2

Last name

Mandatory – must be entered in each row in your file.

3

First name

Mandatory – must be entered in each row in your file.

4

Email

Mandatory – must be entered in each row in your file and must be unique for each student.
If you are importing Young Learners, you might want to enter their parents' email addresses. You can also make up email addresses for the students, such as [firstname]@[lastname].com.

5

User name

Optional - It is usually the first letter of the first name + last name. If you have not entered these in your file, they can be automatically generated as part of the import process.
Note: User names must be unique for each user.
Note: If you are using the Oxford Online Placement Test, and you do not want to create user names for each student, leave the cells blank. DO NOT delete the column heading or the column.
Note: If you are using the Young Learners Placement Test, user names will be generated by the system. Leave the cells blank.

6

Password

Optional - You can enter your own student passwords here, or you can leave this column blank and ask the system to generate them. Password recognition is case-sensitive, but passwords can be repeated.
Note: If you are using the Oxford Online Placement Test, and you do not want to create passwords for each student, leave the cells blank. DO NOT delete the column heading or the column.
Note: If you are using the Young Learners Placement Test, passwords will be generated by the system. Leave the cells blank.

7

Date of birth

Optional - Enter as date/month/year, e.g. 30/01/01 (= 30th January 2001)
Note: If you do not know or do not want to include date of birth, leave the cells blank. DO NOT delete the column heading or the column.

8

First language

Optional - e.g. French, Spanish
Note: If you do not know or do not want to include first language, leave the cells blank. DO NOT delete the column heading or the column.

9

Gender

Optional - Enter M (male) or F (female)
Note: If you do not know or do not want to include gender, leave the cells blank. DO NOT delete the column heading or the column.

10

(Organisation defined field)

Additional, optional columns for use with the Oxford Online Placement Test. If you want students to supply any extra information, you can set this up in the OLMS.

First create up to 10 extra registration fields in Define organisation fields via Manage organisation settings. Then select the fields as Mandatory on registering (placement) in Set registration fields

Any extra fields you create and set will automatically display in the template which you can use to prepare your data.

11

(Organisation defined field)

12

(Organisation defined field)

13

(Organisation defined field)