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JoseS
Administrator
1 year ago
Question

Overwriting Existing Instructors

  • July 9, 2026
  • 1 reply
  • 96 views
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Hello everyone,

 

I have been using Course Evaluations for a little bit but ran into a bit of a problem that I hope someone in the community can help with. 

 

We run an automatic import for our course enrollment data. We have everything mapped and we have selected “Overwrite Included Courses” checked off to account for any changes in the course. The problem is that when an instructor or TA changes, the change is not reflected in the Qualtrics directory data. For example: Johnny Rocket is the original instructor for BIOL100 section 001. In week two of the term, Johnny Rocket is replaced by Sammy Sosa as the new instructor for BIOL100 section 001. This information is updated in the import file, but instead of completely replacing Johnny Rocket for the course, Sammy Sosa is added as an instructor. This does not happen often, but I want to avoid having course evaluations run for both instructors and I don’t want to edit the evaluation survey data after the fact to remove the incorrect instructor. 

 

Why is overwrite not replacing the instructor? I have a feeling it has something to do with the mapping, but I am not completely sure. 

 

Any help would be appreciated.

Omar

      1 reply

      Community Automated Response
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      Hi ​@osafie,

      The behavior you’re seeing is likely because “Overwrite Included Courses” does not necessarily remove an instructor already associated with a course. It controls how the included course records are imported, but Qualtrics still needs to identify the existing course/instructor relationship and know which prior association should be removed.

      A few items to check:

      1. Review the import mapping
        Confirm that the instructor field is mapped to the intended course-instructor field and not to a directory embedded-data field that simply adds or updates contact information.

      2. Check the matching/identity fields
        Make sure the import includes the fields Qualtrics uses to identify the same course section—for example, a stable course or section identifier such as BIOL100-001. If the matching fields change or are incomplete, Qualtrics may interpret “Sammy Sosa” as an additional association rather than a replacement.

      3. Check duplicate-contact settings
        If fields used by your directory’s duplicate-contact settings are excluded from the import, Qualtrics can create a new contact instead of updating the existing one. Likewise, imported contacts that match all configured identity-resolution fields are consolidated with the existing profile.

      4. Verify the source file’s representation of instructors
        If the file contains both “Johnny Rocket” and “Sammy Sosa” for the same course section—even on separate rows—Qualtrics may treat both as active instructors. The replacement file should contain only the current instructor for that section, using the same stable course identifier.

      5. Test with a single course section
        Before running the full import, test a copy or limited file where BIOL100 section 001 contains only “Sammy Sosa”. Confirm whether “Johnny” is removed, retained, or added as a second instructor. This will help determine whether the issue is caused by the source data, matching fields, or Course Evaluations’ association logic.

      If the mapping and stable identifiers are correct but “Johnny” remains associated, please contact your Brand Administrator or Qualtrics Support with the import mapping and a sanitized example file, and ask them to verify how instructor associations are reconciled during the Course Evaluations enrollment import.

      This is a Qualtrics community automated response. Please flag this post if it is not relevant.
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