Breadcrumbs

Term File

This file is optional and can be used to load terms and partial terms. If you would like to send these files during implementation, please discuss with your implementation team. Otherwise, please review this article on how to manually create terms.

Additionally, should you choose to send this file, we highly recommend you reference the “ File Validation Logic” section at the bottom of this page to understand how changes will be applied.


File Format:

Please note when creating the Data File in a text editor each column must be surrounded by double quotes and separated by a comma.

Example: "TermCode","TermName","TermType","Status","AcademicYear","ActivationDate","TermStartDate","TermEndDate","TermFirstDayofClass","TermLastDayofClass","TermFirstDayofExams","TermLastDayofExams","GradesDueDate","LastDayofAddDrop","ProcessDate"

Example File Name: institution_term.csv


Required Data

Data Field

Data Type

Required | Optional

Description

Impact

TermCode

String

Required

Unique identifier assigned to the term

Used as unique identifier and has a 20 Character limit

TermName

String

Required

Primary Term Name i.e. Spring 2025, Fall 2025

Needed for display purposes and has 150 character limit

TermType

String

Required

Must match an existing Term Type in platform i.e. Academic Year, Semester

Used to categorize terms and determines the copying of Course Section content from term to term

Status

String

Required

Current status of term i.e. Draft, Pending, Active, In Progress, or Completed

Used to identify the status of a term

If Draft status is listed, term will be created in Draft status. If any other status is provided (e.g. Pending/Active/In Progress) the term will be published and set into Pending status. Term Activation, Start, and End Date Milestones will trigger all status movements after this point

AcademicYear

String

Required

Must be provided in expected YYYY format i.e. 2025

This value is expected to align with the year in which the academic year ends (i.e. if your Academic Year runs from Fall 2024 to Spring 2025, you should populate “2025”)

Used in various platform reports that are based solely on the academic year

ActivationDate

datetime

Required

Must occur before all other related term dates.

Must be provided in expected format: YYYY-MM-DD i.e. 2025-01-13

Drives the term status to change from Pending to Active

The Activation of the Term also triggers import platform actions such as:

  1. Creation of new Survey, Assessment, Data Collection, Practicum Instances

  2. Automated copy of Syllabus, Survey Question, and Assignment/Assignment Linking related data if auto-copy is enabled

TermStartDate

datetime

Required

Must occur one or more days after the ActivationDate and may not be set in the past

Must be provided in expected format: YYYY-MM-DD i.e. 2025-01-13

Drives the term status to change from Active to In Progress

TermEndDate

datetime

Required

Indicates when the term is closed. Must occur one or more days after the Term Start Date.

Must be provided in expected format: YYYY-MM-DD i.e. 2025-01-13

Drives the term status to change from In Progress to Completed

TermFirstDayofClass

datetime

Required

Defines the first day of class and must be provided in expected format: YYYY-MM-DD i.e. 2025-01-13

Acts as a milestone event for various platform features such as Surveys, Data Collections, and Assignments

TermLastDayofClass

datetime

Required

Defines the last day of class and must be provided in expected format: YYYY-MM-DD i.e. 2025-01-13

Acts as a milestone event for various platform features such as Surveys, Data Collections, and Assignments

This field also acts as the milestone for the closure of Program and CLO Assessments from the prior term by default

TermFirstDayofExams

datetime

Required

Defines the first day of exams and must be provided in expected format: YYYY-MM-DD i.e. 2025-01-13

Acts as a milestone event for various platform features such as Surveys, Data Collections, and Assignments

TermLastDayofExams

datetime

Required

Defines the last day of exams and must be provided in expected format: YYYY-MM-DD i.e. 2025-01-13

Acts as a milestone event for various platform features such as Surveys, Data Collections, and Assignments

GradesDueDate

datetime

Required

Defines the grades due date and and must be provided in expected format: YYYY-MM-DD i.e. 2025-01-13

Acts as a milestone event for various platform features such as Surveys and Assignments

LastDayofAddDrop

datetime

Required

Defines the last day for students to add/drop a course section and must be provided in expected format: YYYY-MM-DD i.e. 2025-01-13

Acts as a milestone event for Surveys

ProcessDate

datetime

Required

Date in which the data was extracted (exported) expected format: YYYY-MM-DD i.e. 2025-01-13

Needed to validate that consecutive data loads should update existing records

Optional Data

Data Field

Data Type

Required | Optional

Description

Impact

ParentTermCode

String

Optional

Unique identifier of the Parent Term

Optional -- When ParentTermCode is provided, the term will be created as a partial term under/related to this parent term. If no value is provided term will be created as a parent term and not a partial term.

Note: We will only accept changing a Term to a Partial Term (or vice versa) via this field while the term is in Draft status.

If a double quote needs to be used for the values then the escape character should be in a double quote,

e.g., "This is a ""value"" with double quote."

File Validation Logic

  • File Timing

    • This file will process prior to the Course, Co-Curricular Activity, Course Section, and Co-Curricular Section File(s).

  • Formatting Requirements

    • Term Code & Term Name - Must be unique and match the character limits of 20 and 150 characters respectively.

    • Term Type - Must match an existing Term Type listed in the platform. If no Term Type exists, we skip the entire row.

    • Status - Must contain one of the following statuses: Draft, Pending, Active, In Progress, Completed.

    • Academic Year - Must be listed in YYYY format. This value should align with when the Academic Year ends for your Institution.

    • Activation Date - Must be in the format YYYY-MM-DD and be listed prior to any other milestone date.

    • Term Start Date - Must be in the format YYYY-MM-DD and be listed at least one day after the Activation Date.

    • Term End Date - Must be in the format YYYY-MM-DD and be listed at least one day after the Term Start Date.

    • Other Milestone Dates - Must be in the format YYYY-MM-DD. As a best practice, this date should fall between the Term Start and Term End Date values. This includes:

      • First Day of Class

      • Last Day of Class

      • First Day of Exams

      • Last Day of Exams

      • Grades Due

      • Last Day of Add/Drop

    • Parent Term Code - If provided, this must match an existing unique parent term code in the platform. Should you be providing the parent and partial terms together, please ensure the parent term is listed prior to the partial term(s).

  • Validation Logic for Data Changes

    • Newly added Terms/Partial Terms will be created in the platform with the appropriate status (see Validation logic for Status Changes section below).

    • Terms/Partial Terms that have been removed from the import file (but still exist in the platform) will NOT be removed.

    • If the Term/Partial Term is in Draft status, we will accept any changes to the Milestone Dates.

    • If the Term/Partial Term is currently running (Pending, Active, In Progress status), we will only accept changes to Milestone Dates if the date has not yet passed. All other changes to passed dates will be ignored.

    • If the Term/Partial Term is currently in Completed status, no Milestone Date Changes will be accepted.

  • Validation Logic for Status Changes

    • The Import file will ONLY support updating the status from Draft to Pending. All other status changes are managed by the Activation, Start, and End Date Milestone Events automatically by the platform.

      • Should one or more of the above mentioned Milestone Events already occurred, the platform will capture that information and update the Term to the appropriate status via a follow up event. For example if this import file has a Term with a Start Date of yesterday, we will import the term and move it to an active status.

      • If Term Activation is triggered due to the system recognizing that it is listed as a current/prior date, this WILL initiate the following activities: generating new Surveys, Assessments, Data Collections and Practicums, and term over term data copy (ie. assignment linking).

  • Validation Logic for Partial Terms

    • Updates related to Partial Term will ONLY be available if parent term is still in DRAFT status.

      • If adding a parent term code where one didn't previously exist (for the purposes of converting a term to a partial term), we will update the term to be a partial term and relate it to the parent.

      • If removing parent term code, we will convert it back to a normal term.

      • If we can't find a match to a populated parent term code, the import will apply no change.

    • If the parent/partial term is already published, we will NOT accept the any changes related to partial terms.

FAQ

  • What courses should we be sending in this file? The majority of active courses should be included in the course catalog file. A good rule of thumb is to include all active courses that had sections with enrollment in the last 2 academic years.