Batch Course Creation

The batch course creation system is a feature that enables the CMSX administrator to automatically create courses by uploading CSV files.

1. Login into the system as the administrator. You will enter the CMSX Overview page.
   
   
2. On the top of the page there is a menu bar. On that bar select “CMSX Admin”. This should take you to the CMSX Administration page that gives you an overview of all administrative activities.
   
   
3. Scroll down until you see the heading “Batch Course Creation:”. There is a text field below this label. “Choose File” and “Upload”.
   
   
   
4. There is a drop down menu on the left of the “Choose File” option. Please select the semester for which you wish to create the new courses in this menu.
   
   
5. First select “Choose File”. Then select the CSV file that contains the course information. The path to the file can be seen in the text field. You may click the “Download” link to obtain a sample CSV while with all the column headers.
   
   
   
6. Now, select “Upload”. This uploads the file on the CMSX to be read.
   
   
   
7. You should be redirected to a page containing the data from the CSV is parsed and presented for review. You may edit any of the entries on this page or choose to select/deselect any of the courses.
   
   • Main Selection box (The selection box in the header row): Selecting this will select all the courses. Deselecting this will deselect all the courses.
   • Course Select/Deselect option: Selecting a course will create it or deselecting it will not do so when the “Create” button is hit.
   • The “Course” column: This column shows the department that offers the course.
   • The “Code” column: This column shows the course code.
   • The “Course Name” column: This column shows the name of the course.
   • The “Instructor” column: This column shows the netID of the course instructor. The CMSX allows more than one instructors for a course.
   • The “Notes” column: This column is used by the CMSX to present any specific comments to the administrator. The CMSX checks for a number of constraint violations (like duplicate rows, existing classes etc) and points it out in the “Notes” column. The possible notes are:
     • Class exists in the database: This class already exists in the database. You may deselect this option to prevent recreating it.
     • Duplicate row: There are more than one copies of that row in the uploaded file. You should deselect all but one of these.
     • Instructor does not exist in the database: The netID in the instructor field in invalid.
   • The “Edit” option: You may click on the edit option to make any changes to a class.
   • The “Revert Changes” option: In case you have made any changes manually, to the data that was read from the CSV file, you may cancel those changes by clicking on this option.
   
   
8. Once you are done making all the changes (if any), hit the “Create” button at the bottom of the page. This will create all the courses in the database and you will be redirected to the CMSX Administration Page. You should be able to see the newly added courses in the list of courses.