Data Import — Switcher Program

Who this guide is for: Organization Owners (or members holding a custom role that grants Data Management) moving to EmbayLMS from another LMS who need to bring over their users, course enrollments, and historical completion records via CSV.

Overview

The Switcher Program lets you import nine kinds of data from any other LMS using plain CSV files — no per-vendor connectors. Imports are platform-agnostic: export to CSV from Moodle, Canvas, TalentLMS, Docebo, Cornerstone, Absorb, or anything else, match the columns below, and upload. The nine entities are: users, groups, group members, categories, learning paths, path courses, enrollments, completion history, and path enrollments.

You can import each entity from its own CSV, or fill one multi-tab workbook (one sheet per entity) and upload it all at once — see Multi-tab workbook below.

Every import runs in two steps:

1. Validate (dry run) — we parse your file and show a preview with a per-row error list. Nothing is written until you confirm.
2. Confirm — valid rows are applied in the background; you get an email when it finishes, and any failed rows can be downloaded as an error CSV to fix and re-upload.

Imported records are tagged source = import so reporting can tell historical data from native activity, and imported completions keep their original completion dates.

Prerequisites

• The Admin or Owner role — the importer requires the user:import permission.
• Your courses already exist in EmbayLMS with a slug (or external ID) set, so enrollment and completion rows can resolve to them.
• A CSV file (UTF-8). Excel “Save As → CSV UTF-8” works; a BOM is handled automatically.

Step-by-step

1. Go to Settings → Data Management → Data Import.
2. Choose what you’re importing: Users, Enrollments, or Completion history.
3. Click Choose file and select your CSV, then Validate.
4. Review the preview: total rows, valid rows, and any rows with errors (with the reason).
5. Click Import N rows. N counts the valid rows only: rows with errors are skipped, not imported, and you can fix and re-import them afterwards. The button stays disabled when the file has a header (column) error or no valid row at all.
6. Wait for the confirmation (or check Import history later). For failed rows, click Download errors to get a CSV of just those rows with their error messages.

Importing users from the Users page

If all you need is a user import, you don’t have to go through Settings — the same importer is available directly from the Users page (Admin and Owner, user:import):

1. Go to Users and click ⬆ Import CSV. This opens the user importer at /admin/users/import.
2. The record type is locked to Users — there is no type picker and no multi-tab workbook here; upload a single Users CSV.
3. The flow is identical to the main importer: Validate (dry run with a per-row error preview — nothing is written), then Import N rows to confirm.
4. Import history for your user imports is shown on the same page.

The file uses the same columns as the Users CSV format below — the column contract is identical between the two entry points.

CSV formats

external_id is the primary matching key; email is the fallback. Provide at least one.

Users (users)

external_id,email,first_name,last_name,role,locale,manager_external_id,group_names,job_roles
e-1001,jdoe@acme.com,Jane,Doe,learner,en,e-1000,Sales|Ontario,Sales representative
e-1000,boss@acme.com,Pat,Lee,manager,en,,Sales,Sales manager;Team lead

New users are created without sending an activation email — this is a historical backfill. Invite them through normal user management when you’re ready.

Enrollments (enrollments)

email,course_slug,status,due_date
jdoe@acme.com,whmis-2024,active,2025-03-31

Completion history (completions)

email,course_slug,completed_at,score
jdoe@acme.com,whmis-2024,2023-05-01,92

A completion with no existing enrollment auto-creates a completed enrollment so the transcript and compliance evidence are intact.

Groups (groups)

Dedup key: name.

Group members (group_members)

Maps users into groups. Import users and groups first.

Categories (categories)

Dedup key: slug.

Learning paths (learning_paths)

Dedup key: title. New paths are created as draft and hidden so an import never publishes a path by surprise.

Path courses (path_courses)

Maps courses onto a path. Import learning paths and the courses first.

Path enrollments (path_enrollments)

Enrolls users onto a path. Import learning paths and users first. Path completion stays derived from course completions — this only records the enrollment.

Multi-tab workbook

For a full migration, use the workbook instead of nine separate uploads:

1. Go to Settings → Data Management → Data Import → Multi-tab workbook and click Download workbook template. You get an .xlsx with one sheet per entity, each with the right headers (your tenant’s custom user fields are included on the Users sheet).
2. Fill in the sheets you need — leave the rest empty.
3. Upload the filled workbook. Each non-empty sheet is validated and shown with its row counts, then imported in dependency order (users → groups → group members → categories → learning paths → path courses → enrollments → completions → path enrollments) when you click Import N sheets.

The workbook headers always match the current CSV contract above — if a column is added to an import, the next template download includes it automatically.

SCORM package bulk re-upload

The CSV import brings your course records across. It does not carry the course content — your SCORM packages are files, and every LMS stores them differently, so you re-upload the .zip packages you already own. Settings → Data Management → SCORM Packages does that for a whole folder at once instead of one course at a time.

What you need first

• The Owner, Admin, or Instructor role. Creating a new course needs course:create; attaching a package to an existing course needs course:update. An instructor sees and can attach to only the courses they are assigned to.
• Your SCORM packages exported from the old LMS as .zip files (SCORM 1.2, 2004 2nd/3rd/4th, cmi5 and AICC packages use the same .zip container).
• If you plan to attach rather than create: run the courses part of your CSV import first, so the course shells exist with their external_id from the old LMS.

Step-by-step

1. Go to Settings → Data Management → SCORM Packages.
2. Drag your .zip packages onto the drop zone (or click Choose SCORM packages). Up to 25 packages per batch, 500 MB each. Files that are not .zip, are too large, or are already in the batch are listed back to you with the reason and simply not added.
3. Each package gets a row. Set Maps to for each one:
   • Create a new course — a new draft course is created with the title shown. The title is pre-filled from the filename (Fire_Safety-2024.zip → Fire Safety 2024) and you can edit it. If you leave it alone, the package’s own title from its imsmanifest.xml replaces it once the file has been processed.
   • Attach to an existing course — pick the course from the list. Use the Search courses box above the table to narrow it; courses that came from a CSV import show their source ID from the old LMS in brackets, so you can match on that rather than the title.
4. Click Upload N packages. Three packages upload at a time; each row shows its own progress and then Done or Failed with the reason. A failed package does not stop the rest — fix its mapping and press the button again to retry just the failures.
5. Read the summary line: N courses created, N attached, N failed.

What happens to each package

One package becomes one module on the course’s draft version — the natural unit, since a SCORM package has a single manifest. Attaching a newer export of a course therefore adds a module to the draft rather than overwriting what learners are currently taking; review the draft and publish a new version when you are happy with it.

Every package goes through exactly the same pipeline as a single upload from the course editor: the file goes straight from your browser to encrypted storage, the server verifies its real size against your plan’s storage allowance, checks the archive for unsafe paths and file types, reads imsmanifest.xml for the SCORM version, launch file and table of contents, unpacks it for the player, and queues the malware scan. Nothing about the bulk path is a shortcut around those checks.

Configuration reference — SCORM re-upload

Troubleshooting — SCORM re-upload

Configuration reference

Troubleshooting