Importing Linked Data
What is 'Linked Data'?
Linked data is any non-ILR based data that you wish to analyse alongside the normal Strata data in your reports. The data will either relate to individual learners or to their enrolments. Examples could be: which tutor is responsible for a certain enrolment, or more generally to group learners against your own custom categories. A total of twenty fields are available for use when importing rows of data for a Learner or an Enrolment. These are split as 10 for Dimensions (text values that you can group by in reports) and 10 for Measures (statistic values, must be numeric values). Attendance data - at the enrolment level- may also be imported. See the file formats for more details below.
Importing Linked Data Files
[To import Linked data you must be assigned to the 'Administrator' or 'Import Manager' roles]
Strata supports importing data linked at either the Learner or Enrolment level.
Learner data is linked via the 'LearnerRefNo' field - which is a required ILR field.
Enrolment data is linked on the 'SWSupAimId' ILR field - this is currently a non-mandatory ILR field but will usually be automatically generated by your MIS software against each enrolment in your ILR.
Attendance data may also be imported similarly to Enrolment linked data, it uses a separate file format with three columns alongside 'SWSupAimId' as below - note the 'Punctual' column should be present but values may be omitted if not recorded.
- Planned – the number of occasions they are planned to attend in the academic year for the enrolment
- Actual – the number of occasions they have actually attended in the academic year for the enrolment
- Punctual – the number of occasions they were punctual in the academic year for the enrolment
Below are sample files with a header row and some example rows for each of the learner, enrolment and attendance linked data files. When creating the files, please ensure you have the header row included as per the examples below. All columns must be present even if you are not populating values in those columns. Text values should be double quoted ("Example Value").
To import your linked data files, click the Import icon on the left side panel and select Linked Data. You will need to specify the file you are selecting for import, either Learner, Enrolment or Attendance, and the academic year the data relates to. Clicking Select file will allow you to browse for the relevant file. Note that any file you import for a particular year will replace in full any previously imported data for that year (for the same type, Learner, Enrolment or Attendance).
Once the file has been selected click Upload. Please do not navigate from this page until the upload has been successful.
A Notification will appear at the top of the screen in the blue menu bar, once the data has imported and the calculations have completed.
The Import Queue tab displays the status of any files currently importing.
The Import History tab provides a list of all imported files. If any file fails to import, the Status will show as failed and the Log column will give an indication of the error.
Managing Linked Data Visibility and Titles
By default the linked data columns for the Learner or Enrolment file types are not visible in the Report Editor. To set which data fields you wish to be available - and how they are named in your reports - open the Linked Data settings screen. Open the main Strata Settings page - reached via the cog icon on the left side panel - and select the Linked Data page.
To change a field's visibility and/or caption, click the edit button (pen icon) at the end of the row. This will open a dialog where you can set values and save your settings. Once saved you will see the field as an availble column or criteria (for dimension fields only) within the Report Editor. You are now ready to create reports combining your newly imported linked data with Strata's own standard fields.
Dialog to edit a linked field:
