Mass upload Group users

Can this Idea be reevaluated? If we wanted to create a group using specific Department Codes, and perhaps State/Providence or Location, how would we do this without having to manually type each Department Code where location = XXXXX? We have over 5000 department codes, hence, that would require alot of Assignment Rules.

The only option currently available is to add new users to the system via mass upload. You can't add existing users to a Group with a csv. I just started with Absorb, and they informed me of this after we were almost finished. Had to pay them extra to upload three group lists that I needed in order to account for past LMS historical data. Would have taken me three minutes on old LMS.

Attached is an example if a file we uploaded in our previous LMS to create a group users in a list of department codes. This would be a lot easier and more efficient than creating 300+ Rules and having to type each department code (which leaves a lot of room for errors). We could also create several groups at one time, per Criteria Grouping. The criteria Source could be any of the fields in the users table, but usually used to create a list when there are more than one employee from the same source in a list of values, such as Job Title, Location, Department Code, or perhaps Supervisor. Though a group can be created by selecting employees that meet the criteria in the Users table Add Group Action, the system creates a Manual Group. We would want the group to be Automatic to pick up new hires and transfers. Another downfall to Add Group Action from the Users table is you can only select 1000 users at a time.

I also do not see this requested feature being available. Please clarify.

From my understanding, this functionality is not currently available, so why does the status say so? Using custom fields to import this information is NOT the same as what is being asked for.

This feature would be so helpful. It is extremely tedious to create large groups (manual and automatic) within the LMS, even when using custom fields. If we could upload a CSV/Excel file, it could save so much time and effort.

The status of this changed to "Currently Available". What does that mean? I can't seem to find it in the Admin portal.

Being able to create ad hoc groups via csv is standard functionality in other LMSes. There is a high need for this and it's not sustainable to use the custom fields for a workaround.

Paul, my organization uses the custom field for this extensively. However, there are MASSIVE drawbacks and caveats to this method.

1. You can't rearrange your custom fields without deleting them and recreating. When you do that, you break all your enrollment rules. Absorb assumes customers will never come up with a need to insert a custom field in between two existing ones.

2. There is no way to concatenate custom fields. Let's say you set the field to "Engineers" so people with that value are enrolled in a specific course. But then you assign some engineers to "Engineering Managers" as well. Ideally, the field would show "Engineers; Engineering Managers". There is no way to do this through import (without export and massage in Excel). No way to do this with an enrollment key. So, you end up with separate custom fields for each. And then you quickly run out of custom fields.

3. You have to be extremely careful with naming conventions. In Analyze, some of the data models have access to Group Name, but not the custom fields. Other models are the reverse.

Hi Aaron,

It's because of the complexity of portals that my suggestion has, and continues to work so well. Tying a huge number of otherwise unrelated users together using a value in their profile is exactly how custom fields are leveraged today. Custom field values make it easy to search for and aggregate users.

Custom fields are added in your Portal Settings, and then are available on all users in your LMS. Custom field values can be set from a list of drop-down options you specify, can use ad-hoc text entry, or more - depending on the type of Custom Field you add.

The custom field becomes a filterable column on the Users Report, allowing an Admin to add up to 1000 Users to a new Group as a mass action right on that report.

Read more about Custom Fields here.

Groups are divided into two types in Absorb: Manual and Automatic.

Manual Groups rely on the Admin going into the Add/Edit Group configuration screen and using the Assignment -> Users to specify the users who will be included in the Group. Any future users to be included in the Group need to be added the same way.

Automatic Groups are based on the same rule builders that Courses and Resources use. All users who qualify based on the rule, including those rules based on Custom Field values, are added automatically to the Group. This applies immediately for existing users, and any new users added who meet the rule definition are also added to the Automatic Group.

Read more about Groups here.

The functionality to accomplish this already exists in the LMS, so definitely reach out to support for more nuanced assistance as you explore these features.

We are actively working on ideas which have greater traction across our client base or address unsupported functionality in Absorb, but if this idea garners more support or an unsupported use case reveals itself we will definitely reconsider this for development.

As Devin mentioned, that solution isn't feasible with the variety of divisions, departments, and organizations.
What is the ETA for Absorb to provide a the requested fix?

Hey Devin!

It was merely a suggestion to get your learning outcomes accomplished quickly, since an engineering solution is subject to priorities, development timelines, and the release cycle. You can perform the steps I outline below right now and get training to your Learners today!

Paul, what's so hard about doing the CSV route rather than creating custom fields? In my division I have almost 700 people who have 17 different job codes and 15 different organizations. They all have specific needs that sometimes overlap the need for training. I had to do 2 course enrollements of 70 and 90 people. If I could have uploaded the names into a group it would save me a bunch of time. ELogic had this ability and we were migrated in to absorb. This feature missing.

My division is 700 people, but we have thousands of users across all of our company. There is no way to add or figure out how to use a custom field to add to groups.

Hello Admins!

I'd like to help achieve your organizational goals as quickly as possible, so here are a couple suggestions you may want to try:

The Idea as described can be facilitated by uploading a CSV of users and creating an automatic Group based on Date Added (or vice versa). Or if you add a custom field first you can enter an identifying value to that custom field during import which then can be used as an automatic rule to qualify for Group membership.

Can you take me through some examples of where what I've suggested would fall down? I'm sure there are some cases!

Being able to select multiple existing users and the ability to add them to an existing group would be super helpful. Currently you can only bulk add users to a new group.

There is an option to do this via CSV. Not all fields are available, however.

This is the same concept as my idea LMS-1-150 from Sept 2021. Being able to mass upload would have made our integration to Absorb and lot smoother. And be very helpful for future enrollments into Curricula. Plus we had this in our previous LMS.