Bulk Enrolment to Groups
Instructors can bulk enroll or unenroll students into existing Brightspace Groups via spreadsheet.
Note that:
A Group Category with all component Groups must be created before importing.
Any student to be added to a Group must already be a site member.
Contact cpi@brocku.ca for assistance with bulk enrolling students when working with a Project Site.
Using the Groups Import tool
Select the drop-down arrow next to a category. This will open a drop-down menu where Import can be selected.
Selecting Import opens a guided workflow with detailed instructions for correctly formatting the CSV file. Each line in the file must represent a single action: either enrolling to or unenrolling from a specific Group in the site.
Brightspace will validate the CSV upon upload and pause the process if errors are detected. If the file contains no errors, the enroll or unenroll actions are performed, and once completed, the import results are displayed immediately.
Recommended bulk enrolment process
1. Create a Group Category and all component Groups
Use the Groups tool to create your Category and individual Groups. The “# of Groups - No Auto Enrollments” option is ideal when importing. More Groups can be added after creation, and everything can be renamed as necessary.
Click a Group’s label to edit the Name and Code.
Group Name is visible to students and can be edited at any time.
Group Code is automatically generated but may not be a reliably sequential number: take care to verify each code or rename as needed. These must be unique within a site.
Group Code is required for the import file.
Group Code could be edited to match an existing list of group labels before import.
The Groups tool itself can Export Groups if they have at least one member. The Export option can thus provide a template for enrolment with a bit of preparation.
2. Create a spreadsheet containing student usernames
The CSV upload requires an action, a Brightspace Username, and a Group Code (everything else is optional).
Username is a Brock email address without the domain (@brocku.ca).
Instructors can always access their student’s email addresses through BrockDB, but the Brightspace Grades tool has simple export options (it is not required to export actual grades, although those can be deleted easily enough). This method can also include student first and last name for reference.
Once downloaded, all domains can be removed through Excel’s Replace tool (CTRL+H), where “@brocku.ca” is replaced by a blank place.
3. Merge the spreadsheet containing student usernames with the import template
Go to the Groups tool and click Import, then download the template CSV.
The upload only requires ACTION, Username, and Group Code (everything else is optional).
Action
Students can be added or removed from Groups via ENROLL or UNENROLL. Note that this process does not verify or change existing enrolment, and it is possible for students to be enrolled in multiple Groups (this can be manually adjusted through the standard Group Enrolment options).
Group Name and Code
As described above, the Group Code can be changed but should be thereafter be left static.
Copying the usernames and existing groups from the above example into the template will result in something that looks like this:
Save the completed template, then return to the Group Import page.
As of late July 2025, the import file cannot include a header row and this must be removed before uploading.
Choose the file and be sure that it is being added to the correct Group Category.
The import process will validate the upload and describe any issues. If there are none, the Groups and membership will be listed.
Membership can be adjusted by clicking an individual Group or by using the Category’s dropdown menu and then Manage Members.