MarkBook - Import Names With Course Codes

    MarkBook^®    section 4-5

Import Class Lists/Rosters Using Course Codes & Sections
There is another way to select among student records in a lengthy text file. This section explains how to hunt for your students using their course and section indicators.

MarkBook has the option of importing your students from a text file, extension .txt, also known as an ASCII file. If this text file is built for a single class, these instructions are unnecessary. However, if you have an available text file which has:

a large block of students, and
their courses and sections,

then you can select among these courses and sections to pick out only those students in your class.

The text file can be comma delimited (as in the following example) or tab delimited and may look like this if you viewed it in a word processor (without any items underlined as in this example!):

Last,First,Gender,Number,HF,DOB,Tel#,Courses Adams,John,M,12347,3A1,860423,555-8923,ART3DO03 MAT3PO01 ENG3DO02 PHB3O102 Bat,Barry,M,34691,3C1,861123,555-4634,ART3G001 MAT3G002 HIG2G002 PHB3A003 Jones,Keith,M,76239,4D1,861001,555-8652,ART4A001 ENG3A002 MAT4A003 PHB4A004 MacDonald,Melinda,F,54321,1G1,860214,555-2398,ENG1W001MAT1W002FSF1W003ART1W004 Turkstra,Melanie,F,88663,2E1,860311,555-0102,HIG2G001MUS2A002ART2G002BAC2G001 etc.

Like the example in the previous section, section 4-4, the above example file has each student (a record) on a single line of text with each data item (a field) separated by commas. The field order and titles are given in the "Header" line. Note that there is a Courses field and course codes and sections are run together without separating commas. It doesn't matter whether there is a space separating the courses or not - both versions are shown. The first student, John, is taking ART, MATH, ENGLISH, and PHYS ED BOYS, all at the Year 3 level. His class sections, as a two-digit suffix to each course code, are 03, 01, 02, and 02 respectively.

MarkBook's "Import If" feature will pick out those students taking a specific course and section. For instance, suppose you were teaching class HIG2GO01. If you matched MarkBook's Import If #1 title for the Courses field, MarkBook would hunt the above file and select only one of the five student records shown: Melanie is the only one taking that course in section 01. Barry is taking the same course but he is in a different section (02) and would NOT be selected. Note the two underlined course code/sections.

SELECTING & IMPORTING STUDENTS BY COURSE & SECTION:

Suppose you wished to select all students taking ART3DO03 and you had a text file for your entire school with the structure indicated above, i.e. all courses and sections in a single field in each student's record. The example file's shown here has a header line and fifteen fields per student record. Also note that the file contains a Miscellaneous field. These notations will be dealt with in section 4-6.

Import Students using Courses and Sections

Import Students using Courses and Sections

As in section 4-4, drag titles from the Available Fields column at the right to the Matched: window in the center. Note that Import If #1 is the title used for the Courses field. In the Import If #1 contains box, type in ART3DO03. Click Import Students. MarkBook will hunt through all student records and import only those students with ART3DO03 somewhere in their COURSES field. Among the students in the sample at the beginning of this section, only John would be selected for this class even though all five students listed are taking ART.

Once the first class is built this way, MarkBook will remember the file name, location, and field match order. The second and subsequent classes are much easier to import! MarkBook will also update the class from a fresh import file using the Update button on the Edit Names screen in section 4-2.

A second example: Suppose you have a comma-delimited text file available with each course separated into its own field. Your school is semestered and runs on a five-period day. The course fields are in timetable order. X indicates lunch or a spare period. The 12-field text file for the same students above would look like this:

Last,First,Gender,Number,HF,DOB,Tel#,C1,C2,C3,C4,C5 Adams,John,M,12347,3A1,860423,555-8923,ART3DO03,MAT3PO01,X,ENG3DO02,PHB3O102 Bat,Barry,M,34691,3C1,861123,555-4634,ART3G001,MAT3G002,HIG2G002,X,PHB3A003 Jones,Keith,M,76239,4D1,861001,555-8652,ART4A001,ENG3A002,MAT4A003,X,PHB4A004 MacDonald,Melinda,F,54321,1G1,860214,555-2398,ENG1W001,MAT1W002,X,FSF1W003,ART1W004 Turkstra,Melanie,F,88663,2E1,860311,555-0102,HIG2G001,MUS2A002,ART2G002,X,BAC2G001 etc.

In this case, each teacher knows that any given class (i.e. a course and section) is in a specific field. For instance, the mathematics teacher knows that his class, MAT3PO03, runs in period 2 and is in field #9 titled C2 in the text file above. The boys' phys ed teacher knows his class, PHB3O102, runs in period 5 and is in field #12 titled C5. Now, when importing data, each teacher can move Import if #1 to the appropriate field, C1 - C5, type in the course and section, and import all students in that class. The other four "C" fields will use Ignore this field when matching. Maplewood builds a MarkBook file like this - see the Maplewood Import in section 4-7.

A third example: This type of import file is in wide use for MarkBook because it's relatively easy to build. Each student record is repeated once for each course - notice that John and Barry each have five near-identical rows. Often, there is no header row. The 8-field text file for some of the students above would look like this:

Last,First,Gender,Number,HF,DOB,Tel#,Course Adams,John,M,12347,3A1,860423,555-8923,ART3DO03 Adams,John,M,12347,3A1,860423,555-8923,MAT3PO01 Adams,John,M,12347,3A1,860423,555-8923,LUNCH Adams,John,M,12347,3A1,860423,555-8923,ENG3DO02 Adams,John,M,12347,3A1,860423,555-8923,PHB3O102 Bat,Barry,M,34691,3C1,861123,555-4634,ART3G001 Bat,Barry,M,34691,3C1,861123,555-4634,MAT3G002 Bat,Barry,M,34691,3C1,861123,555-4634,HIG2G002 Bat,Barry,M,34691,3C1,861123,555-4634,LUNCH Bat,Barry,M,34691,3C1,861123,555-4634,PHB3A003 Jones,Keith,M,76239,4D1,861001,555-8652,ART4A001 Jones,Keith,M,76239,4D1,861001,555-8652,ENG3A002 etc.

In this case, Import If #1... is lined up with the last field, Course. MarkBook will search the entire file and import any student record (a row) when it encounters a specified course and section. Because each student has a different course in each record, it doesn't matter that they're repeated numerous times. SAS builds an export file using this structure - see the SAS export in section 4-7.

Importing text file data is highly dependent on the files available to you. Before you can consider importing student records, you must establish what types of file downloads are available. If there are numerous teachers using MarkBook in your school, school district, or LEA, it is more likely that you will be able to persuade the persons in charge of your central computer system to build routines (aka "menu picks") to extract text data with an appropriate file structure for your use. Work with that person to build a custom text file that meets all teachers' needs. Remember, central computers are in place to make data management fast, accurate, and therefore efficient. As teachers, if you need data in a particular form, then the managers of the computer system should be prepared to provide data in a useful format! ASK!

Manual: Go to section 4-6 to see MarkBook's ideal import file.