Good news! Digital Xpress has a new feature! You can import students from an Excel Spreadsheet or CSV file and save yourself a lot of typing.
Why would I use it?
There are a couple of ways you may want to use this new feature. First, you can use the Student Import to import a list of students for your first class. With a spreadsheet of students, Digital Xpress will create users, assign passwords, and automatically add the students to your class. You’ll be ready to begin creating assignments in no time!
Second, you can use the Student Import to assign students to additional classes, even if you’ve already imported a spreadsheet once. You can import a spreadsheet multiple times to assign those same students to other classes. So, for example, if you’re teaching English, and another teacher is teaching Computer Skills, you can share your spreadsheets. Or if you teach two different classes, but some of the students overlap, you can import the spreadsheet twice to include them in the class roster. Digital Xpress will make sure that each student keeps one username and password, and allows the student access to the assignments for his/her classes.
How does it work?
After logging into Digital Xpress, click on “My Students”. Look for the new link on the top right, “Import Students from a Spreadsheet”. Click that link.
The first step of the Student Import will appear and looks something like this:

If you have a spreadsheet ready, you don’t need to read this paragraph, but if you don’t, there is a link on the right hand side to “download a blank spreadsheet”. Using this template to create your spreadsheet will help to make sure you have all of the information you need and in the right places.
Once you have a spreadsheet ready for importing, click the browse button and select the spreadsheet you would like to upload. If your spreadsheet includes column titles (the “blank spreadsheet” does include column titles), leave the column names box checked. Finally, select the class you would like to import the students into.
When you click next, you will come to Step 2.

This step of the import process sets up the records in the system correctly. Some people find this step to be a little tricky at first; it is technical, but easy to understand. If you used the “blank spreadsheet”, you’re lucky, the assignment will be done for you automatically. If not, you need to make a few selections. This page of Student Import ties a column in the spreadsheet to a field in our database. On the left hand side, you see a list of fields for a student “Name”, “Grade”, etc. Then on the right hand side there are a series of drop down boxes. For each one of the drop downs, you want to select the column from your spreadsheet that contains the student data we need. So for “Name” select the column in your spreadsheet that contains the student’s name. And for “Grade” select the column that contains the student grade.
Remember! Only the Name, Grade and Student ID are required. The other fields are optional. If you do not assign a username, penname or password, the system will automatically generate them. You can print a list of usernames and passwords to give to your class later.
When you’ve selected the columns click “Next” and proceed to step 3.

Step 3 of Student Import reports back to you what it finds in the import file. Listed on the page are the students in the file and any errors found. If there are errors, a message will appear in red beneath the student’s name. You can click “edit” to edit the student and fix the errors. Or, if you would prefer to ignore errors, you can click “Next” and proceed to the last step. Also, the “remove” link can be used to remove a record from the import. For example, if you have a spreadsheet you are using that has students not in your class, you can remove them at this step to make sure they don’t get assigned to your class.
Check your work, when you click “Next” the system creates the student records! If there are mistakes, you will need to edit the records by hand!
Now you’re finished! The page that appears will look like this:

Congratulations! You’ve imported your students!
There are several links that may be of interest to you in the center of the page. You can print a list of usernames and passwords for the students in your class, or you can view the roster & edit it. Either way, you’re ready to give your students access to Digital Xpress and give them the chance to learn new writing skills!
Let us know!
Have you tried the student import? How was your experience? We want to know!
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