Canvas allows you to manually bulk create users, accounts, terms, courses, sections, and enrollments through the Admin interface.

This document references the SIS Import CSV Format API page, where the majority of the CSV information is located. Each CSV file is symbiotic with another and tell Canvas how to manage all information for the account. View an SIS relationship diagram.

Each step in this lesson provides sample CSV files with descriptions of each required and optional field. You will also find a link to download each file if you want to take a deeper look at the formatting. Download a zipped package of all sample files.

You should practice importing data in your Canvas test environment before importing any content to your production environment.

CSV File Format

In order to bulk upload data into Canvas, you must create one or more CSV text files.  CSV files can be generated by many programs. Student Information Systems (SIS) often have a method for generating reports in CSV format that can be modified to fit the format Canvas requires. If you do not know how to save a file in a CSV format, please check the documentation for the program you are using to create your CSV file (e.g., Excel).

When using the Instructure format for importing files in the SIS Import page, you may import an individual CSV text file or you may compress multiple files into a single ZIP file to bulk import data. If you are manually uploading individual files, the files must be uploaded in the order shown in this lesson.

CSV Field Formatting

The first row of your CSV file (header) must include the complete field name for each file. The order of the columns does not matter but having the rows ordered properly is crucial for files like the accounts.csv. When any of this data is modified in the User Interface (UI), Canvas will set the new values as "sticky." When a new basic upload is performed, the data existing in Canvas will remain "sticky" and any imported data that would attempt to update that data will be ignored. Learn more about sticky fields.

An import can override UI changes only if the proper options are selected when using the SIS Import tool.

API Documentation

CSV files only include a specific set of fields. Canvas contains additional values that are available through each individual API. After running the CSV files for your institution, standard practice for a majority of institutions is to upload all SIS CSV files and then use the Canvas API to update full account and course attributes. For more information, view the Canvas API documentation for Users, Accounts, Terms, Courses, Sections, Enrollments, and Groups.

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