SRB Trillium - MarkBook Export File 
SRB Trillium generates a MarkBook file from its data base using a separately-sold
Interfaces Utility program. Commonly known as "Trinterface", it exports data to other
school related applications as well.
Some districts have created their own custom MarkBook export from their Trillium data
base. In this case, the PersonID number should be included in the export if the
district is planning to send data back to Trillium through Trinterface. Trinterface should be installed on administrator machines in each school.
The utility may be run by any person with an appropriate level of access as set
up by the IT department. Use of the Trinterface file for
generating MarkBook classes has a number of advantages:
Trinterface takes only minutes to
export
the MarkBook file and the file doesn't require any modification before
MarkBook imports classes from it. Everyone saves time and the accuracy is
100%.
the file has all
students in the school. All teachers may import each of their classes from the
same file.
it's a very complete
export file with
17 fields per student.
This includes such items as DOB, multiple telephone numbers, medical alerts,
gender, and Email addresses which facilitate the communication process described in
section 3-4.
because
Trinterface can make a new file at any time,
frequently updating all classes
during the term using a fresh file is
a very simple process. This requires seconds of time per class. See section 4-8
for details.
if data is imported
to MarkBook through Trinterface, summary data may be exported back to Trillium
electronically for official reports. See section 11-2.
a Trillium school can go to a paperless system using these
import, update, and export processes. That is, no class rosters need to be
printed - each teacher gets their classes electronically before the term
begins. As the term
progresses, no add/delete reports need to be printed and put in teachers'
mailboxes - the update function does this electronically. And no bubble sheets
or printed forms are required for summary submissions prior to a report card
cycle - Trinterface accepts this data electronically. This includes grades,
attendance, learning skills, and the full
text of a comment prepared in MarkBook as described in Chapter 10 of this
Users' Guide.
When Trinterface
is launched, the user gets this screen:
The user must log
on. Typically, each user will have a level of access that permits downloading
data for their own school only. Teachers don't have access but the office
administration does. Most school districts will replace the 'Trillium Board'
logo with their own:
Once logged on, select the
Export pop-down menu and then click the MarkBook choice.
In the next
image, specify School Type. The school name will appear by default unless the user has
multi-school access. The current Year and Effective Date will appear by
default. The user must make a decision about Status. Before the school
year begins, all students will have a PreReg (pre-registration) status. Students will become Active
once they have shown up form the first time and and have been recorded as attending. Consequently, if the
file is being run in advance of the first official school day, as in this example, all students will be PreReg and none Active.
However, a few days into the school year, most students will be Active and the few
stragglers will still be PreReg. Consequently, we recommend:
if the MarkBook Export is being generated before the academic year
begins (e.g. August export in advance of a September start), select PreReg
only.
early in the
academic year, select both. MarkBook classes created or updated from this
export file will still include the stragglers who haven't yet attended their first
class of the year.
once the
administration is confident that the remaining stragglers are not returning to
school, select Active only. Teachers who update an existing class from an
Active only file will get a message to delete the "inactive" stragglers.
Click the Export
Data button. Trinterface will ask for a file name and location. Give the file a
convenient name like EPSS for this screen example. Save it in a location where
teachers have access and students do not. Or, save it to the local hard drive
and move it later. Then, when Save is clicked, the screen
will display a progress bar as per this image. It will take a few minutes to
process the export.
When the export
processing is complete, the progress bar disappears and there is an on-screen
report. In this sample image, 435 students have been included in the MarkBook
Export. Click View File to see the contents of the file which will be
called EPSS.txt in this example. 8 students were rejected. Click Error Report to see why.
This is the Error
Report from the above example. These 8 individuals have no timetable yet and
that's why they weren't included in the EPSS.txt MarkBook Export file. If there
are a significant number of students in the error report, it may be prudent to
correct the issues and then run the Trinterface/MarkBook export again.
Because of the quantity and type of data, it's essential that the files generated NOT be
accessed by students.
We suggest posting the file in a secure school network location to which teachers have
login/password access. If such a location does not exist, copy the file onto a
diskette or a USB mass storage device and then copy it into a few
teacher-only/department computers. When importing Trillium
data into MarkBook from this text file, match the fields as per the following image.
Drag-and-drop or double click the Available Fields at the far right
against the Matched fields in the centre. Since this is a first semester class, the second semester Home form, HF2
in field 7, is ignored. Conversely, a second semester import would ignore HF1 in
field 6 and match Home Form with HF2 in field 7. This is a whole-school file so
the filter for a specific class is based on a course code in field 15. General details on this import
process are in section 4-4. Note that the DOB is in YearMMDD format selected in the lower left
of this frame and MUST be used as shown in order to export data back to
Trillium. Additionally, Trillium's PersonID number, the 14th field in the Trillium file, MUST
be imported as
Special Use in order to run the secondary export back to Trillium described in section 11-2.
Once the fields are matched as shown in the next image, click the Import
Students button at the lower right. Done once, MarkBook remembers the file
name and field matches for all of the next classes.
At the beginning
of a semester, co-op classes have a 'holding' course code and can be
imported like a regular class above. However, part way into the term, unique
courses are assigned to each student and the holding code is gone. However, it's still possible to
import or update a class based on a teacher number in field 16 or 17. In the
following example, the teacher with a co-op class has their personal staff
number, 0374, in field 16 for each co-op student. Set up this way,
MarkBook will import only those students with that staff number in field 16.
Elementary
schools have two choices for exporting Trillium data to MarkBook. The Attendance
exports in Trillium can generate a useful whole-school ascii file with name,
gender, student number and Home Forms. Or, use Trinterface to generate a file
with more fields as described above.
Match the fields
as shown above. Import on the basis of a Home Form. Click the Import Students
button and MarkBook will import just those students in the specified
group. Or, If importing a Phys Ed class, import on the basis of a Gender and
Home Form. In this example, the teacher is importing all of the males in 7D or
7E.
At a later date, when running the
Trinterface/MarkBook Export a second or subsequent time, it's tempting to give it a
different file name. We recommend against this. Instead, give it the same name
as before and over write the original file. This makes it much easier for
teachers to update their classes from the newer Trinterface file as
described in section 4-8. If your school is
a Trillium client, and Trinterface is new to the staff, then we recommend copying
five sections of this Users' Guide for staff members - this page, section
4-4, section 4-5, section 4-8, and section 11-2.
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