Suspend or unsuspend multiple users in CourseCloud

Note: The below describes our limited-access content delivery platform for early adopters. If you are not an early adopter, please see the section on CourseCloud Legacy.

To suspend or unsuspend users individually, see this article.

As users join, change, or leave teams in your organization, you might decide to suspend or unsuspend their CourseCloud accounts.

To do this in bulk, you will need to add the existing users’ account information to a specific spreadsheet template and then upload that data to CourseCloud as a CSV file. (If you know how to create multiple user accounts at once, this template will be familiar.)

While CourseCloud will accept CSV files up to 256 MB in size, if you have a large learner population we recommend working in batches of 5,000 users at a time to keep processing times swift.

First, locate the template provided by your Customer Success Manager or Implementation Specialist. (You can also download it here.) It will look similar to this:

Each user should occupy their own row. For each person, add their first name, last name, and email address to the first columns. These three details are required for all user accounts, and email addresses must be entered entirely in lowercase.

Beyond those required fields, the only one needed for this task is the suspended column.

Note: While unlikely to be relevant for suspended users, if their city or country entries in this template remain empty, that will overwrite any details that had previously been added to those fields.

The suspended column is used to update whether a user’s account is active. When a user is suspended, they cannot log in to or receive any further messages from CourseCloud. (It is not possible to completely delete users, as that would erase all historical activity and completion data associated with their accounts.)

The values for this column are either 1 (suspended) or 0 (unsuspended). If this column is empty, CourseCloud will assume the default (unsuspended). So to suspend a user in your template, enter “1” for them in this column; to unsuspend everyone in your template, either enter “0” for each or leave the column empty.

Once you are satisfied with your spreadsheet, save it as a CSV file and then log in to your Learning Administrator account in CourseCloud.

When logged in, select Admin Tools at left and then the Users tab:

Click Upload users:

On the next page, select your CSV file:

The only option here that differs from the steps to create multiple user accounts at once is the Upload type. Select Update existing users only, which will ignore any entries in your CSV that use an email address not yet tied to a CourseCloud account:

Once the CSV file is selected and you are satisfied with your settings, click the Upload users button:

You will then see a preview of the user accounts that will be updated as well as additional settings:

Note: The additional settings can vary depending on the Upload type that was selected. 

Here are the relevant settings when suspending or unsuspending existing users:

• Existing user details tells CourseCloud how to handle the updates.
  Set this to Override with file, which will replace existing users’ account details with the information in your CSV.
• Select for bulk user actions defines which user audience will be impacted.
  Set this to Updated users, which will update existing accounts.

Once satisfied with your settings, click the Upload users button:

A Results page will outline the accounts that were updated. Your users will have now been suspended or unsuspended. If any of the CSV’s entries resulted in an error, that information will also appear.

Finally, click the Continue button to return to the Upload users page.

If you have further questions, our Support team is here to help via email at support@opensesame.com or via live chat and phone. Feel free to reach us at (503) 808-1268, ext. 2, or at +44 203 744 5541 in Europe.