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The User Directory lets you view, search, and organize your entire teaching staff. This guide walks through adding teachers individually or in bulk, editing their profiles, and removing teachers who are no longer at your school.
Before you begin: You need an existing school on Lena. See Creating Your School.

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Viewing teachers

  1. Go to User Directory → Teachers in the sidebar
  2. You’ll see a table of all teachers registered at your school
Teacher directory table showing teacher names, email addresses, and account status
Use the search bar to find specific teachers by name or email.

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Adding a teacher individually

1

Click 'Add Teacher'

Click the Add Teacher button. The add teacher dialog opens.
2

Enter teacher details

FieldDescription
First nameTeacher’s given name
Last nameTeacher’s surname
EmailTeacher’s email address (used for login)
No additional academic details required for K-12 (primary and secondary school) teachers.
Add teacher dialog with fields for first name, last name, and email address
3

Save

Click Save. A confirmation message appears and the teacher is added to your directory. If they don’t already have a Lena account, they’ll receive an invitation email.

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Bulk import via Excel

To add many teachers at once, use the Excel import feature.
1

Click 'Import'

Click the import button in the teacher directory. The import dialog opens.
2

Prepare your Excel file

Create an Excel spreadsheet (.xlsx) with the required columns, or download our ready-made template. The first row must contain the column headers, and each subsequent row represents one teacher. The columns depend on your school type:
📥 Download K-12 teacher import template
ColumnRequiredDescription
First NameYesTeacher’s given name
Last NameYesTeacher’s surname
EmailYesTeacher’s email address (must be a valid email)
Staff IDNoTeacher’s staff ID or employee number
TitleNoTeacher’s title (e.g., Mr, Mrs, Dr, Prof)
Example spreadsheet:
First NameLast NameEmailStaff IDTitle
IbrahimSuleimanibrahim@example.comTCH-001Mr
NgoziAdeyemingozi@example.comTCH-002Mrs
GraceOkonkwograce@example.comDr
  • Column headers must match exactly as shown above (e.g., First Name, not Firstname or first_name)
  • The file must be in .xlsx format (Excel workbook)
  • Faculties and departments (if provided) must already exist in your school’s academic structure
  • Email addresses must be valid and unique
3

Upload and review

Upload the .xlsx file. Lena validates the data and shows a preview of valid rows and any errors. Review the results, fix any issues in your spreadsheet if needed, and confirm the import. A confirmation message appears and the imported teachers are added to your directory.

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How imported accounts work

When you import teachers via Excel, Lena automatically creates accounts for them. Here’s what happens:

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Usernames

Lena generates a username for each teacher using the first available option from this priority list:
  1. Email prefix — The part before @ in their email (e.g., ibrahim.s@school.edu becomes ibrahim.s)
  2. Staff ID — If provided in the spreadsheet (e.g., STF-001)
  3. firstname.lastname — Their name in lowercase (e.g., ibrahim.suleiman)
  4. firstname.lastname.xxxx — If the above is already taken, a random 4-character suffix is added

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Default passwords

The default password for each imported teacher is their last name in lowercase. For example, a teacher named “Ibrahim Suleiman” would have the password suleiman.

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Distributing login credentials

After a successful import, Lena returns a list of credentials (username and password) for all newly created accounts. No email notification is sent automatically — you’ll need to share these credentials with your teachers (e.g., via email, staff meeting, or secure messaging).
Encourage teachers to change their default password after their first login via the profile settings. They can also use the Forgot Password flow to set their own password since email is required for teacher accounts.

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Editing a teacher

To update a teacher’s information:
  1. Find the teacher in the directory
  2. Click Edit on their row
  3. Update the relevant fields
  4. Save changes

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Removing a teacher

To remove a teacher from your school:
  1. Find the teacher in the directory
  2. Click Delete or Remove
  3. Confirm the removal
Removing a teacher disconnects them from your school. Their courses will still exist but may need to be reassigned to another teacher. Their Lena account remains active — they just won’t be associated with your school.

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Teacher sub-roles

When adding teachers, they receive the default “Teacher” role. Sub-roles (Lecturer, Assistant, Student Assistant) are managed at the course level through Course Settings by the course creator using the collaborators feature.