Edly Knowledge Base

Studio

Exercises and Tools

Embed and Configure Cohorts

To use cohorts in your course, you must select a strategy for assigning your learners to cohorts: automated assignment, manual assignment, or a hybrid approach.

Note: Although you can change the assignment method for cohorts at any time, you should have a strategy in mind as you design your course and only make changes to cohorts while the course is running if absolutely necessary.

You must also decide whether course-wide and content-specific discussion topics should be divided by cohort or unified for all learners.

After you decide on a cohort strategy for your course, complete these configuration steps (as applicable).

Enable cohorts.
Determine the method you want to use to assign learners to cohorts.
- Implement an automated assignment strategy
- Implement a manual assignment strategy and manually assign enrolled learners to the cohorts that you create
- Use a combination of automated and manual assignment
Optionally, identify the discussion topics that you want to be divided by cohort.

You complete these procedures on the Cohorts and Discussions tabs on the Instructor Dashboard.

Note: On the Cohorts tab, the number of learners shown next to each cohort name in the Select a Cohort list includes only learners who are enrolled in the course. The number does not include preassigned learners who either do not yet have an Edly account or are not enrolled in your course.

For an optimal learner experience, you should make sure that the configuration of the cohort feature is as complete as possible before the start date of your course. If you need to make changes to the way you have configured cohorts while your course is running, be aware of the implications of your changes.

Implementing an Automated Assignment Strategy

To implement an automated assignment strategy of learners to cohorts, you enable the cohort feature for your course and create cohorts that have the Automatic assignment method. To add learners to these cohorts, you do not need to take any action: the system automatically and randomly assigns learners to the available automatic cohorts when they first access any course content or divided discussions. Learners who access the Course page or other course pages such as a Textbook page do not receive a cohort assignment until they view course content or divided discussions.

Note: You can add learners manually to any cohort, whether it was created as an automated cohort or a manual cohort.

Automated Cohorts

The first time a learner views course content on the Course or Discussion page, if she is not already assigned to a cohort, she is randomly assigned to one of the automated cohorts. If no automated cohorts exist, the system creates a default cohort and assigns the learner to this cohort.

Note: The default cohort is created to ensure that every learner is assigned to a cohort. To avoid having to re-assign learners from the default cohort to other cohorts, make sure you create the automated cohorts that you want before the course starts.

Implementing a Manual Assignment Strategy

To implement a manual assignment strategy of learners to cohorts, you enable the cohort feature for your course and create cohorts that have the Manual assignment method. Then, you manually assign enrolled learners to the appropriate cohorts.

Note: It is not a requirement that learners have enrolled in your course or registered on Edly for you to add them to a cohort. For learners who have not yet created an Edly account, you must provide a valid email address. For learners who have an Edly account but have not yet enrolled in your course, you can provide either a valid email address or a recognized Edly username.

Manual assignments should be as complete as possible before your course starts. If learners enroll after your course starts, you should assign new learners to cohorts as soon as possible.

Enabling Cohorts in Your Course

To enable cohorts in your course, follow these steps.

In the LMS, select Instructor, then select Cohorts.
Select Enable Cohorts.

You can now add cohorts to your course.

Warning: Be very careful in deciding to enable the cohort feature in a live course, because doing so affects the course experience for learners. Learners might no longer have access to courses and discussion topics that were previously visible to them.

If you must make changes to cohort configuration while your course is running, be sure you understand the consequences of doing so.

Adding Cohorts

After you enable the cohorts feature for your course, you can add cohorts. To add a cohort to your course, follow these steps.

In the LMS, select Instructor, then select Cohorts.
Click Add Cohort.
Enter a name for the cohort.

Note: Learners can see the name of the cohort they are assigned to. The message “This post is visible only to {cohort name}” appears with each post in discussion topics that are divided by cohort.

Specify whether learners are automatically or manually assigned to this cohort.
Optionally, select Select a Content Group to associate the cohort with a content group.
Select Save.

Continue implementing your cohort strategy by creating additional cohorts as applicable, and specifying the assignment method for each cohort.

Note: By the time your course starts, you must have at least one cohort in your course that is automatically assigned. If you have not created at least one automated assignment cohort in the course by the time that the first learner accesses your course content or a divided discussion topic, Edly creates a default cohort to which learners are automatically assigned.

You cannot delete cohorts, but you can change their names or the way in which learners are assigned to them.

Assign Learners to Cohorts Manually

If you have implemented a manual assignment strategy for cohorts in your course, make sure your manual assignments are as complete as possible before your course starts. If learners enroll after your course starts, you should assign new learners to cohorts as soon as possible.

Note: Making changes to cohort assignments after the course starts can affect the course experience for learners. Learners might no longer have access to courses and discussion topics that were previously visible to them.

To manually assign learners to cohorts in your course, follow these steps.
View the live version of your course. For example, in Studio click View Live.
Select Instructor, then select Cohorts.
Scroll to the Cohort Management section at the bottom.
From the Select a Cohort list, select the cohort to which you want to manually assign learners.
On the Manage Learners tab, under Add learners to this cohort enter the username or email address of a single learner, or enter multiple usernames or addresses separated by commas or new lines. You can copy data from a .csv file of email addresses or usernames, and paste it into this field.

Note: It is not a requirement that learners have enrolled in your course or registered on Edly for you to manually add them to a cohort. For learners who have not yet created an Edly account, you must provide a valid email address. For learners who have an Edly account but have not yet enrolled in your course, you can provide either a valid email address or a recognized Edly username.

Select Add Learners.
Learners you added who have Edly accounts are assigned to the selected cohorts. A confirmation message indicates the number of learners who were successfully added to the cohort.
Learners you added who do not yet have Edly accounts are listed as “Preassigned” to the cohort. When preassigned learners enroll in the course, they are automatically added to the cohort.
If some learners that you listed could not be added to cohorts, an error message lists the email addresses or usernames of learners who could not be added to the cohort.

Note: Because learners can belong to only one cohort, adding a learner to a cohort moves them from any cohort they were previously assigned to. The confirmation message indicates the number of learners who were moved from their previous cohort assignment as a result of your adding them to the current cohort.

Assign Learners to Cohorts by Uploading a .csv File

Uploading a .csv file containing a list of learners and the cohorts that you want to assign them to is another way of assigning learners to cohorts manually.

Any assignments to cohorts that you specify in the .csv files you upload will overwrite or change existing cohort assignments. The configuration of your cohorts should be complete and stable before your course begins. You should complete manual cohort assignments as soon as possible after any learner enrolls, especially for enrollments that occur after your course has started.

Note: Be aware that the contents of the .csv file are processed row by row, from top to bottom, and each row is treated independently. If the same learner is assigned to different cohorts in different rows in the spreadsheet, the last assignment to be performed is that learner’s final assignment.

For example, if in your .csv file Learner A is first assigned to Cohort 1, then later in the spreadsheet is assigned to Cohort 2, the end result of your .csv upload is that Learner A is assigned to Cohort 2. However, the upload results file will include Learner A twice in the “Learners Added” count: once when they are added to Cohort 1, and again when they are added to Cohort 2. Before submitting a file for upload, check it carefully for duplicated learners and other errors.

If the same learner is assigned to a cohort that they already belong to, they are not included in the count of “Learners Added”.

To manually add learners to cohorts by uploading a .csv file, follow these steps.

Note: To add learners who do not yet have Edly accounts to cohorts using a .csv file upload, you must provide their email addresses in a column with the heading “email”. Learners without Edly accounts are “preassigned” to cohorts; they are not included in the count of learners “added” to cohorts.

View the live version of your course. For example, in Studio, select View Live.
Select Instructor, then select Cohorts.
From the Select a cohort list, select the cohort to which you are adding students.
Select Assign students to cohorts by uploading a CSV file, then select Browse to navigate to the .csv file you want to upload.
Select Upload File and Assign Students. A status message is displayed above the Browse button.
Verify your upload results on the Data Download page.
Under Reports Available for Download, locate the link to a .csv file with “cohort_results” and the date and time of your upload in the filename. The list of available reports is sorted chronologically, with the most recently generated files at the top.

Altering Cohort Configuration in a Running Course

The configuration of cohorts should be complete and stable before your course begins. Manual cohort assignments should be completed as soon as possible after any learner enrolls, including any enrollments that occur while your course is running.

If you decide that you must alter cohort configuration after your course starts and activity in the course discussion begins, be sure that you understand the consequences of these actions.

Change Learner Cohort Assignments

After your course starts and learners begin to contribute to the course discussion, each post that they add is visible either to everyone or to the members of a single cohort. When you change the cohort that a learner is assigned to, there are three results.

The learner continues to see the posts that are visible to everyone.
The learner sees the posts that are visible to his new cohort.
The learner no longer sees the posts that are visible only to his original cohort.

The visibility of a post and its responses and comments do not change, even if the cohort assignment of its author changes. To a learner, it can seem that posts have “disappeared”.

Rename a Cohort

You can change the name of any cohort, including the system-created default cohort.

To rename a cohort, follow these steps.

View the live version of your course. For example, in Studio select View Live.
Select Instructor, then select Cohorts.
From the Select a cohort list, select the cohort whose name you want to change.
On the Settings tab, in the Cohort Name field, enter a new name for the cohort.
Select Save. The name for the cohort is updated throughout the LMS and the course, including learner-visible views.

Delete a Cohort

You cannot delete cohorts. However, you can rename a cohort, change its assignment method, or move learners to other cohorts.

Changing the Assignment Method of a Cohort

Although you can change the assignment method of a cohort at any time after you create it, you should have a strategy in mind as you design your course, and only make changes to cohorts while the course is running if absolutely necessary. Be aware of the implications of changing cohort configuration while your course is running.

Note: When your course starts, you must have at least one cohort in your course that has automatic assignments. If you have not created at least one automated assignment cohort in the course by the time that the first learner accesses your course content, Edly creates a default cohort to which learners are automatically assigned. If the default group is the only automated assignment cohort in your course, you cannot change its assignment method to Manual.

To change the assignment method of a cohort, follow these steps.

View the live version of your course. For example, in Studio select View Live.
Select Instructor, then select Cohorts.
From the Select a cohort list, select the cohort whose assignment method you want to change.
On the Settings tab, the current assignment method is selected. Change the assignment method by selecting the other option, either Automatic or Manual.
Select Save.
The cohort assignment method is updated.

Note: Changing the cohort assignment method has no effect on learners who are already assigned to this and other cohorts. Learners who access the course after you make this change are assigned to cohorts based on the new assignment method of this cohort combined with the assignment methods of all other cohorts.

Disable Cohorts in Your Course

Warning: Be very careful in deciding to disable the cohort feature if you previously had it enabled in a live course, because doing so affects the course experience for learners. Course materials and discussion posts that were shared only with members of particular cohorts are now visible to all learners in the course.

To disable cohorts in your course, follow these steps.

In the LMS, select Instructor, then select Cohorts.
Clear the Enable Cohorts option.

All course content and discussion posts that were previously divided by cohort immediately become visible to all students.