e-asTTle – Managing student data

This resource provides details about e-asTTle student logins and how to manage student and group information.

A student in a classroom, sitting at a table with a device.

About this resource

e-asTTle is an online assessment tool, developed to assess students’ achievement and progress in reading, mathematics, writing, and in pānui, pāngarau, and tuhituhi.

This section of the e-asTTle collection provides detailed guidance on importing student data, managing student and group information, and accessing student login details.

To login to e-asTTle, click here: e-asTTle - Welcome (education.govt.nz)

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e-asTTle - Managing student data

Importing student information
Managing student and group information
Student logins

Student and group data must be imported into e-asTTle using an .ast data file from your SMS system.

It is essential to import student records from your SMS into e-asTTle to keep your student information in e-asTTle current.

Process for importing student data

The following accordions outline the six-step process for importing student and group data into e-asTTle.

Step 1: Check that you have the proper access

Screenshot of the e-asTTle tool with the ‘Import’ button in the lefthand menu circled in red.

Image description: Screenshot of e-asTTle with the ‘Import’ button in the lefthand menu circled in red.

Your role must include being an e-asTTle administrator to be able to import student records.

If you are unsure of your role set-up, log in to e-asTTle and check the options on the left menu.

If you can see "Import" on the left menu, your role includes administrator.

If you cannot see "Import" on the left menu, contact your school’s Delegated Authoriser to get "administrator" added to your role.

If you’re unsure who your Delegated Authoriser is, contact the Education Service Desk.

0800 422 599
[email protected]

Step 2: Export your "student details" file from your SMS

You need to export a file that includes all your students and associated classes from the SMS your school uses.

Please contact your SMS provider for the latest instructions or details.

If you get a message that tells you to zip your import file, please see Instructions on how to zip an import .ast file with Windows or Mac (.pdf) in Materials that come with this resource which explains how to do this.

Step 3: Import "student details" file into e-asTTle

Imports should be done outside of school hours because importing:

overwrites classes and may affect teachers assigning tests to classes
may also affect the application's responsiveness for students in your school and other schools.

Steps to import your file into e-asTTle

1. Select "Choose File".

2. Navigate to the location where the file is saved.

Select the file name and then select "Open". The file name will appear in the text box on the screen.

3. Select "Submit".

4. Select "OK" on the confirmation pop-up.

Your file size must be less than 1MB.

The larger the file, the longer you may have to wait until the import completes. This is because when student data is imported into e-asTTle, links must be created between each student and the classes/groups that they are associated with. If there are many students and/or classes/groups, this process could take a long time.

Some simple steps to streamline this process:

Only export relevant classes/groups from your SMS. Do not include students grouped by subjects not assessed by e-asTTle in your .ast file (for example, exclude students associated with science).
Import student data outside of school hours.

Once the file has finished importing, your screen will refresh and show details on how your import went in the "Import Summary" panel as shown below.

Screenshot of e-asTTle tool showing Import Summary page.

Image descrption: Screenshot of e-asTTle showing Import Summary page.

If there are no manual validations, errors, or warnings, the ‘Issues’ panel shows the message: ‘There were no issues with this import'. You have completed the import successfully and you do not need to do Steps 4- 6.

If there are manual validations, errors, or warnings, the ‘Issues’ panel shows three tabs.

Manual validations
Errors
Warnings

The tab that is open will be the first tab along with issues. For any tab where the issue count is zero, a message is displayed e.g. ‘There were no errors for this import'. You will need to complete the steps below for the ‘Issue’ tabs that are displaying numbers.

Step 4: Student details to overwrite in the “Manual Validation” tab

Image description: A screenshot of the e-asTTle tool showing the Import Summary page. The ‘Manual Validations’ tab is circled in red.

Status – "Complete – no action required"

If all student details such as names and NSN match, the file will import with the status "Complete – no action required".

All students and associated classes have been successfully imported into e-asTTle. You can verify this by selecting Manage Student from the left menu and checking student and group information.

A possible error message that may appear is “Import of <filename> failed…". Although your import has been successfully validated, this error message may appear. Check that the Years in the ast. file are within e-asTTle supported range of Years 1 – 13.

Status – "Incomplete – action required to update students"

Often, the student details file will contain some information that does not match the student details in e-asTTle. Only the student records in the file that e-asTTle considers a match will be automatically imported.

Anything with an error will require manual validation. These records will be listed in the "Matched Records" table and require you to overwrite the details in e-asTTle with the spelling from your SMS.

If you’re sure the difference is just a typing error and your SMS spelling is correct, select the "Overwrite e-asTTle" radio button.

A screenshot of the e-asTTle tool showing the Import Summary page.

Image description: A screenshot of e-asTTle showing the Import Summary page. A table at the bottom of the page shows the issues with the import. The ‘Overwrite e-asTTle?’ column on the right is circled in red.

Slight differences in names

First and last names in the importing file do not need to match exactly to those in e-asTTle for it to update automatically.

e-asTTle uses "fuzzy matching" to compare information as it's imported. Fuzzy matching checks if the names are a subset of each other. If they are, they are treated as a match. Apostrophes, hyphens, and upper/lower case are all ignored when comparing first and last names.

In the three examples below, the first and last names would all be considered a match.

		e-asTTle value	Importing file value (SMS)
Student One	First name	Jane	Jane Mary
	Last name	Harris Gordon	Harris-Gordon
Student Two	First name	Tima	Ti'Mata
	Last name	Smith	TUPOU-SMITH
Student Three	First name	JENNI	Jennifer
	Last name	Murphy-smith	Smit

Choosing “Overwrite e-asTTle” button to overwrite student records

When you overwrite a student record with the importing file record, the student details in e-asTTle will be updated to the details in the import file.

In the example below the student, Jane Smith, is a Female Year 4 student in an e-asTTle school. The record in the importing file has Janet as her first name.

	First Name	Last Name	Gender	SMS	NSN	Ethnicity	Year	Language
e-asTTle	Jane	Smith	Female	Aaa	1111111111	Pacific	4	English
Import file	Janet	Smith	Female	Aaa	1111111111	Pacific	5	English

Selecting “Overwrite e-asTTle” will update the e-asTTle student record from Jane to Janet and change the student’s year from Year 4 to Year 5.

NB: Overwriting a student record with details from the importing file will not overwrite existing test data. It will only update the student’s personal details.

Select the Save button once you have selected the students you want to update.

Be aware that if you move to another screen without selecting Save, you must re-import your file and go through the manual validation process again.

If your SMS details look wrong for any reason, such as the details in e-asTTle look right, leave the “Overwrite e-asTTle” radio button unselected. You’ll need to fix your SMS and re-run steps 2-4.

Once no further manual validation is needed, the status will display "Complete – no action required".

Step 5: Fix errors in the “Errors” tab

Occasionally you will see "Errors" after carrying out an import. This happens when student details in the import file are very different from the student record in e-asTTle.

Select the “Errors” tab in the “Issues” panel.

Image description: A screenshot of the e-asTTle tool showing the Import Summary page. A table at the bottom of the page shows the issues with the import. The ‘Errors (2)’ tab is circled in red.

The help text displaying under the “Errors” tab will depend on the error description.

Scenario

Help text

If no error description contains the phrase "Education Service Desk”

The error/s below must be resolved by updating your SMS system, generating a new .ast file and repeating the import process.

If all error descriptions contain the phrase "Education Service Desk”

The error/s below must be resolved by contacting the Education Service Desk.

If at least one, but not all the error descriptions contain the phrase “Education Service Desk”

Please contact the Education Service Desk to resolve the error/s on: 0800 422 599.

The other errors must be resolved by updating your SMS system, generating a new .ast file and repeating the import process.

Step 6: Check ‘Warnings” tab

Image description: A screenshot of e-asTTle showing the Import Summary page. A table at the bottom of the page shows the issues with the import. The ‘Warnings (0)’ tab is circled in red.

The help text displaying under the ‘Issues’ title for Warnings is:

‘The student records with warnings have been imported successfully, however you may wish to review the warning descriptions below.’

Troubleshooting

Some students have just enrolled at my school. Can I do an import with just those students?

The import file must include all your school’s current students and class details. You should not use the import function to import only some classes/students. Instead, you should use the Manual Input function.

Go to “Manage Students”
Go to “Add New Student”
Fill in the appropriate information
Remember to assign them to a group so that tests can be assigned to them.

I imported students last year; do I have to re-import these same students in the new year?

Yes. It is important to carry out an import that includes all your school’s current students and class details at least at the beginning of each year, even if you imported these students in the previous year. This is so that student details such as Instructional Year and Groups, which changes from year to year, will be kept up to date in e-asTTle.

Can imported students and classes be changed manually?

Yes. Students imported into e-asTTle can be edited manually through the Manage Student screens. You must have an e-asTTle administrator role to do this. Note that if you make changes manually, this will not be reflected in your school’s SMS system.

Classes/groups imported into e-asTTle can also be edited manually through the Manage Group screens.

What effect does importing have on students and groups that have been created manually?

Students and groups added manually can be updated via importing if included in the import file. The import will empty out any groups you created manually if those groups were not included in the school's import file. To prevent this from happening, make sure the import file also includes any manually created groups.

The Manage Students section of e-asTTle has four main functions.

1. Accessing results and targets for individual students so you can:

get a summary of a student’s results across all their tests, at previous and current schools
get and view targets for students.

2. Finding and resetting students’ usernames and passwords.

3. Managing student demographic information manually.

4. Managing group information manually.

This section focuses on managing student information once it has been updated by importing student data from your SMS.

The student detail fields

The table below provides a brief explanation of the student detail fields in e-asTTle.

All teachers can view student details.

Only an administrator can add, edit, and delete students.

Field	Explanation
SMS ID	Student’s unique ID from the school’s student management system.
NSN ID	Student’s unique national ID. National Student Number (NSN): for schools - Ministry of Education page that has information about the NSN such as how to access and use the system. While this field can be left blank if you do not have these details, it is strongly recommended this be added in.
Primary Ethnicity	Primary ethnic group the student identifies with.
Second Ethnicity	Second ethnic group the student identifies with (optional).
e-asTTle Ethnicity	Derived from the ethnicity value(s) you enter. Statistics New Zealand rules are used to produce one of four primary ethnicities – NZ European, Māori, Pacific, Other. This is used for reporting purposes.
Year Level	The level your student will be reported against. This is the student’s current/instructional year level.
Language at home	Primary language your student speaks at home (optional).

Adding new students manually

While manual adding or editing of student data is available in e-asTTle, it is recommended that students are managed through your SMS and the import function.

Only an administrator can add new students.

Follow these steps to manually add new students:

Screenshot of the e-asTTle tool with the ‘Manage Students’ button in the lefthand menu circled in red.

Image description: Screenshot of e-asTTle with the ‘Manage Students’ button in the lefthand menu circled in red.

1. Select "Manage Students" from the left menu.

2. Select the "Add New Student" link.

3. Enter Student Details. The red asterisk indicates mandatory fields.

4. To add the student to an existing group:

select a group from the "Groups" drop-down
select "Add Student to Group".

5. Select "Save".

Please note:

It is recommended to use a student's legal name.
If the student does not show in a test or group, this indicates that you may have missed a step - for example, not selecting the option "Add Student to Group" before selecting "Save".

Viewing, changing, and deleting students

Only an administrator can edit and delete students using the following steps.

Select "Manage Existing Students".
Enter student name or use appropriate drop-downs to search for your student.
Select "Search".
Select a student.
Select "View" to see Student Details, "Change" to edit, or "Delete" to remove students.

If you selected "Change", you should:

edit details you wish to change.
select "Save".

If you selected "Delete", you should:

select the students you are wishing to delete. You can delete multiple students at a time.
select "Delete".
select “OK” to confirm on the prompt that appears. Otherwise, select “Cancel".

Managing group information

A group in e-asTTle is a way of listing a logical subset of students within a school. Tests are assigned to students within a group. To be assigned a test, your students must belong to a group.

These are the three types of groups.

Class/Year groups – for all the different classes and year groups in the school
Customised groups – for students showing particular ability levels (for example, an advanced reading group)
Super-groups – a group made up of several existing groups (for example, all the advanced reading groups in one group)
- You could use super-groups when your school wishes to track the progress of a set of target groups over time.

Generally, your class and year groups will be set up by importing from your SMS. See the Importing student information tab for more information.

Teachers can create customised groups and super-groups.

These groups are set up manually, using the steps below.

Creating a new group

The following steps outline how to create a new group.

1. Select "Manage Students" from left menu.

2. Select "Add New Group".

3. Enter a Group Name and Description. Make your group name very specific, and you will find it quickly. All your school’s groups will be listed in the Assignments screen.

4. Select a "Group Type" radio button:

"Select Students" – for class or customised groups.
"Select Groups" – for a super-group.

5. Select "Continue".

Select Students radio-button

If you selected "Select Students" radio button, you should:

use filters to find students
select the student(s) you wish to include
- You can include all students by ticking the check-box in the blue table header.
select "Continue"
review group information
- If you wish to edit your group, click "Add" to include more students or select a student and click "Remove".
select "Save".

Select Groups radio-button

If you selected "Select Groups" radio button, you should:

select the name of group(s) you wish to include in the multiselect dropdown menu under “Available Groups”
Select "Include"
Remove any groups by selecting it then clicking “Remove”
Check the desired groups are listed in the table, then click "Save".

Viewing, changing, and deleting groups

All teachers can view group information.

The Groups section lists all the groups your students currently belong to.

Only an administrator or the person who created the group can change or delete a group by using the following steps.

Select "Manage Existing Group".
Select the checkbox next to the desired group. (Note: select multiple checkboxes if you wish to delete more than one group).
Select "View" to see group details, "Change" to edit details, or "Delete" to delete the group.

If you selected "Change", edit the details to be changed, then select "Save".
If you selected "Delete", a prompt will appear. Select "OK" to confirm the deletion.

Note: If a group is deleted, the students in the group will not be deleted, nor will any tests assigned to a student via the group.

Adding students to a group

Select "Manage Students" from the menu on the left.
Select "Manage Existing Group", listed under Group Details.
Select the group.
Select "Change".
Check the details and edit if necessary.
Select "Continue".
Select “Add”.
Fill in the Filters section to locate the required students.
Select "Search".
Select the students you wish to add.
Select "Continue"
Select "Save".

Troubleshooting

I have a super-group, but I can only see the names of the contributing groups. How can I see individual students in the groups?

You will need to determine which groups are included in the higher-order groups, and then use the "Manage Existing Students" screen to view the individual students.

What do the red and orange colours mean on the “Locked” column on the “Manages students by assignments” page?

Under the "Locked" column there are three different colours:

Black text - The student has a new account.
Orange text - The student has logged in for the first time and changed their password.
Red text - The student has entered an incorrect password six or more times and their account is now locked. You will need to reset their password.

Information on student passwords can be found in the Student logins tab.

Security details for student logins

Security details are provided to ensure student access to the e-asTTle student portal.

The security details are as follows:

Security detail	Explanation
Username	The name the student enters in the Username field when logging into the e-asTTle student portal.
Password	If the student has not logged in yet, the school-wide password displays Once the student has changed their password, "******" displays to indicate the password has been changed.
Password Status	Tells you the status of your student’s account. If the account is locked or the password has expired the status will display as “Please reset Password'".
Login attempts	Lists last ten times the student attempted to log into the student portal.
Edit to student’s name	If you edit a student’s name, their username may be updated. If this happens, a pop-up message will appear to inform you of their new username, and the student’s password will be reset to the schoolwide password.

Where to find student login details

There are several places where student login information is displayed. All these screens can be found by selecting "Manage Students" from the left menu.

Use the following instructions to access the Manage Student Information screen.

Select "Manage students"
Select the "Manage Existing Students"
Enter values into search filters - for example, first and last name (or select a group from the Group dropdown)
Select "Search"
On this screen, you will see students’ usernames, your school-wide password (if students have not logged in and set their own password), and each student’s password status.

Generating usernames

Once a student has been created in e-asTTle (either manually or via import), this student will automatically be assigned a username. Your student will need to enter the username when logging in to the student portal.

The rules used to create a username are:

first letter of first name
first three letters of second name.
three numbers.

For example, Charlotte Tu’inukuafe would be username: ctui001.

If only one or two letters of the last name are available, use those only. For example, Susan Li would be sli001.

The next student with a first name starting in "C" and first three letters of last name "Tui" would be ctui002.

Student password status

e-asTTle uses a randomly generated password for each school.

Before students sit an onscreen test, it is important to know what their Password Status is.

In e-asTTle there are three different password states.

Please reset password – this means their account is either expired or locked. A teacher must reset the student’s password in order for them to successfully log in.
Student must set by – this means either a teacher has reset the student’s password, or the student is new to e-asTTle. Students in this state must login with their temporary school-wide password and change it. The teacher is not required to take any action.
OK status – this means the student has already logged in and set their own password. The teacher is not required to take any action.

These three states are shown in the image below

Screenshot of the Managing Student Information section of the e-asTTle tool.

Image description: Screenshot of the Managing Student Information section of e-asTTle. The Password Status dropdown menu is open showing: All, OK, Please reset password, and Students must set by...

Below are details about each student login status.

Please reset password

Image description: Screenshot of the Managing Student Information section of e-asTTle. Student login information is displayed with the password saying it is expired and the password status saying “Please reset password” in red font.

Once a student’s password has been reset, they will have six weeks to login and set their own password.

If a student does not login by the end of six weeks, their account will be set to "expired". The Password Status will display "Please reset password". Teachers will need to reset the student’s account to give them access to the student portal.

Likewise, if a student attempts to log in to the student portal six times with an incorrect password, their account will be locked. Teachers will need to reset the locked-out student’s account to give them access to the student portal.

Student must set by

Image description: Screenshot of the Managing Student Information section of e-asTTle. Student login information is displayed with the password status saying “Student must set by 16 May”.

In the example above, "sides333" displays under the Password column for this student.

"sides333" is the school-wide password for the school this student attends. When a school-wide password displays, this indicates that the student’s password has been reset.

In addition, the “Password Status” column shows the date by which the student has to login to set their own password.

OK state

Image description: Screenshot of the Managing Student Information section of the e-asTTle tool. Student login information is displayed with the password status saying “OK".

In the example above, the passwords for these students display as "*****" and the Password Status is "OK".

As long as the students remember what they changed their password to, they are ready to log in to the student portal.

Sharing student login details

Before students sit an onscreen test, you may want to download or print out the student login details. Follow these steps:

Select "Manage Students" from left-hand menu.
Select "Download Student Logins".
Use drop-downs to find your "Group".
Select "Download CSV" for a text file with all your student login details.
Select "Download PDF" for a print-friendly PDF of student login details. (These are designed for giving out to students.)

If students are having trouble entering their username/password, this could be because they are unsure whether the character is a number or a letter.

For example, the letter "o" can be mistaken for the number "0". The word part of the username/password is in bold whilst the numbers are left unbolded - for example, stwo 010. This may help younger students distinguish the letters from the numbers.

Examples of e-asTTle student login cards.

Image description: Four student login cards. The two on the left have a cross through them, showing they are not ready for use as the password says “Password Expired! Ask your teacher to reset it.”

In these example student login cards, Students One and Three have expired passwords that will need to be reset by a teacher.

Resetting student passwords

You can reset one password or multiple passwords at the same time by following these steps.

Select "Manage Students".
Select "Manage Existing Students".
Use search functions to find your student(s).
Select "Search".
Select the student(s).
Select "Reset Password(s)". If multiple students are selected, a prompt will pop up which includes details about:
- how many student passwords have been selected to reset
- what the school-wide password is
- when the students must login and change their password by.

Image description: A pop up box confirming that a student password has been reset. It shows a temporary password and tells that the student must login and set their own password by 22 Jun.

Resetting passwords for students with accounts locked or expired

The following steps can be used to reset passwords only for students in your school whose accounts are locked or expired:

Select "Manage Students".
Select "Manage Existing Students".
Use search functions to find your student(s).
Select the "Please reset password" option from the Password Status dropdown.
Select "Search" (This will display only those students whose accounts are either expired or locked.)
Select the tickbox on the blue heading bar to select all..
Select "Reset Password/s".

Note: Teachers will not be able to reset a students password that has an “OK” status in this page. If students have forgotten the password that they set themselves, the teacher will have to reset it using “Managing Existing Students” instead.

Resetting passwords for students sitting a specific test

The following steps can be used to reset passwords for students who have been assigned a test and have either forgotten their passwords or been locked out. This can only be accessed for an onscreen test that is assigned and available.

Select "Manage Existing Students by Assignment".
Select the test and click "Manage Students".
Select "Reset" next to the student(s) whose passwords you wish to reset.
Those students can now log on using their school-wide password and then change it when prompted.

Login and managing passwords: e-asTTle student portal

Information on accessing e-asTTle student portal can be found on e-asTTle – Accessing student portal and practice tests, Tab 1: Accessing student portal and test.

Students enter the username and password provided by the teacher to sit onscreen tests and view their reports.

When logging on for the first time, students must:

enter their usernames and the schoolwide password (unique for every school)
select "Sign in"
create a new password that they will use from then on.

Once a student has changed a schoolwide password, it will appear as a series of asterisks when you download logins and passwords. Students will need to remember their new passwords.

Image description: e-asTTle page instructing a student to reset their password.

Password rules for students

Students must set passwords that have a minimum of 8 and a maximum of 20 characters.

They can use alphanumeric characters and special characters (for example, !@#$%).

Passwords they are unable to use are:

the schoolwide password
their username.

If students ignore these rules, they will be asked to enter a different password.

Forgotten passwords

If your student forgets their password or gets locked out of e-asTTle, you will need to reset their password.

A student will get locked out of the website if they enter the wrong username/password combination six times. Make sure that students are aware of this.

For system security reasons, an “account locked” message will only come up if a student gets the combination correct after their account has been locked.

If a student repeatedly receives an “incorrect username/password” message, you should check your student’s details to see if their account has been locked and their password needs resetting.

Expired passwords

For system security reasons, at the end of each year on 31 December, any password set as "default" will change to "expired".

As a result, students will not be able to log in with the previous year's password.

If they attempt to log in with the previous year's password, they will see the following message: “Your password has expired. Ask your teacher to reset your password.”

Tracking students across multiple schools

In order to track students across multiple schools, they must have been added to e-asTTle with a National Student Number (NSN).

If a student is active in more than one school, the student will be directed to select a school during the login process. Once a school deletes the student from e-asTTle, the student will no longer have access to this school, except as a filter on the Student Portal report screen so they can view old reports.