Oh, there’s a relatively easy way to do that. It requires some manual intervention – but nowhere near as much manual intervention as linking each student individually!
Here’s a read-only link to a demo base. Duplicate it into your workspace (copying the records), open the base, and follow along as we add a new class to 25 of the students.¹
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The [Students] table contains two fields in common (at least in spirit) with your [Students] table: {Name} and {Link2Classes}. You’ll need to add the other four fields to your table, most likely hidden in most views:
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{Add class?} - check-box
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{New class} - single-line text
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{Combined classes} - formula field with formula
IF({Link2Classes},{Link2Classes}&',')&{New Class}
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{Scratch} - single-line text
Actually, {Add class?} and {Scratch} aren’t essential; their functionality can be provided other ways. I want them there, though, for my own convenience.
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There are two views defined in [Students]:
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<All students> - unfiltered grid
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<Add 2 class> - grid filtered on {Add class?} = :white_check_mark:
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To begin, in the <All students> view, indicate which students will be adding the new class by checking {Add class?}. Check as few or as many as you like; the number of students doesn’t change the process.
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Once you’ve selected the students, change to the <Add 2 Class> view. Only the checked students should appear.
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Select {Scratch} for any row and enter the name of the new class. Once you’re done, re-select the cell and press Ctrl-C to copy the value. (Note: This truly is a scratch-pad field; it’s used only as a convenient place to enter the class name. Feel free to do away with {Scratch} and copy the name from elsewhere.)
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Select the header cell for {New class}, highlighting the entire column, and press Ctrl-V to paste the copied value into every cell in the column. You will notice {Combined classes} is updated to reflect {New class}.
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Select the header cell for {Combined classes}, marking the entire column. Press Ctrl-C to copy the column. Select the header for {Link2Classes} (ditto), and press Ctrl-V to paste the contents of {Combined classes} into {Link2Classes}.
Et voila! You have now added all the checked students to {New class}. (If there is no record in {Classes} by that name, one is created.)
You can now clear {Add class?}, {New class}, and {Scratch} to prepare them for the next class to add. (Easiest way is to select the header cell and hit Delete; you can also configure a Batch Action Block to clear each cell.)
Caveats: You’ll probably want your class name to include year and quarter/semester to ensure each class has a unique primary field. Also, be careful not to copy-and-paste {Combined classes} twice — it’s unfortunately easy to forget and paste it again — or you will create duplicate links to a class.
Give it a shot; in practice it’s a lot less clunky than the description would have you believe. It took me less than 5 minutes to add 25 to 35 students to each of 3 classes. (Admittedly, it would have taken a bit longer if I wasn’t simply assigning them at random…)
I hope this helps, or at the least points you towards a workable solution.
- No student privacy was harmed in this base; the names are courtesy FakeNameGenerator.com, of which I cannot say too many good things…
