Organizations often have years of historical training and certification data stored outside the LMS — in spreadsheets, legacy systems, or other HR tools. Getting this data into the LMS today typically requires manual entry, which is slow, error-prone, and blocks customers from making the LMS their true system of record.

The new bulk import capability lets admins upload historical training and certification records via CSV so they can quickly centralize learning history in the LMS without relying on manual work. 

You can learn how to use the "Bulk Import" page from our dedicated article here.

You can get a quick glimpse of the Bulk Import for Learning with the release notes below.

Enhancements

Bulk Import

The new bulk import tool is available under the menu item LMS Admin.  The user expands the LMS Admin menu and will see a new “Bulk Import” option.  

Admins can upload a CSV file containing historical course and certification data on this new page.

Supported record types for v1:

• Courses
• Certifications
• *Note: Learning plans are not supported as part of this release.

The system processes historical records asynchronously.  This means that an admin can upload a file, and it won’t block other work.  The admin can leave the page, and progress is updated as the import runs.

Downloading CSV Templates for Import

Once a user navigates to the new bulk import page, they see a link to directions at the top of the page and links to download the CSV templates in step 1 of the instructions.

• A downloadable CSV template is available for course and certification import.  To download a template, an admin can click the link.
  
• Once an admin has the template provided, they can create the import file with historical records from another system.
• An instructions file is included on the Bulk Import main page as well, which provides details on what fields are required for import.
  

Importing Historical Learning Records 

After an admin has their import files prepared, they can upload their records to the Arcoro Learning Management System by clicking the upload button in the middle of the page.

• Shown here is an example import file with one record for a user, Cameron Graham.
  
• An admin can retrieve usernames and employee IDs for users with the report titled “People Detail with PID” in the reports section of the Learning Management System.
• To upload a file, a user selects the file from their local computer or drags and drops into the upload section of the import page.
  
• The upload process will fail the initial upload if any of the following conditions are true:
  • The file is too large – Only files up to 50 Mb will be accepted.
  • The file is the wrong type – Only .csv files are accepted.
  • The file is empty with no records – If there are no records to import in the file, the import will fail.
• Courses and certifications do not need to exist as records in the LMS ahead of time for history to be imported.  The import creates transcript records based on the CSV data if a course or certification does not exist at the time of import.
• The import process treats courses and certifications differently in terms of how it tries to match existing learning records.
  • For courses: The system attempts to match existing course history records by course number.  If a matching course record exists for a user, the import overwrites that learning record for the user.   If no match exists based on the course number, a new learning record is added for that user.
  • For certifications: The import always creates a new certification record on a user’s transcript. Records are imported as completed and are not de-duplicated, even if the name and dates are the same. This aligns with existing LMS behavior of assigning a certification to a user.
• The import supports the following course types.  The name for these course types that should be used in the import file is included in the instructions.  For example, to upload an On-the-job-training an admin needs a value of “OJT” in the import file.
  • Task
  • OJT (On the Job Training)
  • VILT (Virtual Instructor Led)
  • OLT (Online Training)
  • ILT (Instructor Led)
  • *Custom training types are not supported as part of this release.
• Once the file is imported, the admin sees a record of the import in the “Import History” table at the bottom of the page.
  
• Both courses and certifications are imported as “completed” on a user’s transcript.

Error Reporting and Progress

Once initiated, the import file progress will be shown in the import history table. The table shows important data on the import with the following fields:

• Last Updated - The time and date of when the system was last able to get a valid status of the import.
• Initiated by - Displays the LMS user who uploads the import file.
• Type - If it is a course or certification upload.
• Status - The progress of the upload in one of the following statuses:
  • In progress
  • Complete but with errors
  • Complete
• Total - The number of records attempted to be uploaded.
• Successes - The number of records successfully uploaded.
• Failures - The number of records that failed to upload.
• Error files - The error file that can be downloaded by the administrator to view the details of each failed record.
  • This file will have an additional column that details the reason why a record failed to import.
• Original file – The original file that was uploaded.

Display and Reporting for Imported Learning Records

• Imported learning history for a user appears in the same places as other course and certification records, including:
  • People > User profile (admin view of a user’s training history)
  • My Training History tab on a user’s homepage
• Imported records are also included in standard LMS reports, such as Certifications by Certification.