Embed and Configure Cohorts

Overview

Cohorts allow you to divide the learners enrolled in a course run into distinct smaller groups. This grouping mechanism lets you create cohort-specific learning tracks, isolate discussion board streams, or tailor content experiences for corporate vs. open-enrollment groups within a single course instance.

Step 1: Enabling Cohorts in Your Course

Before creating group tiers, you must turn on the feature flag within the course run administration options.

Procedures:

1. Open your course in Studio and click View Live to jump into the student-facing LMS.
2. From the top navigation bar of the course player, click the Instructor tab.
3. Select the Cohorts sub-tab.
4. Check the box or toggle option for Enable Cohorts.

Step 2: Choosing Your Cohort Assignment Strategy

The platform supports three distinct group allocation strategies depending on your organizational needs:

1. Automated Assignment Strategy

The system handles all roster division behind the scenes without manual staff intervention.

• How it functions: You create a set of groups and define their assignment method as Automatic.
• Learner Flow: The first time an unassigned learner loads any core course content or opens a forum topic, the engine randomly drops them into one of your automated cohorts.
• The Default Fallback: By default, you must have at least one active automated cohort ready before your course start date. If an unassigned learner accesses the course and no automatic groups exist, the system will automatically generate a generic Default Cohort to safely catch and house them.

2. Manual Assignment Strategy

Instructors explicitly map individual student profiles into specific target groups.

• How it functions: You create your cohorts and define their assignment method as Manual.
• Pre-assignment Capabilities: You can manually assign users even if they haven't enrolled in the course yet. If the user doesn't have a platform account, use their email address. If they have an account but haven't entered the course, use their username or email.

3. Hybrid Strategy

You can combine methods by setting up several automated cohorts to handle open public traffic while using manual entries to move specific students into private custom groups.

Step 3: Adding Cohorts to the System

Procedures:

1. Navigate to the Instructor Dashboard > Cohorts page in the LMS.
2. Click the Add Cohort button.
3. Configure the parameters in the group row:
   • Cohort Name: Input a clear name. Note: Learners can see their cohort name on discussion boards (e.g., "This post is visible only to Team Alpha").
   • Assignment Method: Select the radio button for either Automatic or Manual.
   • Content Group Association: (Optional) Map this cohort directly to a preconfigured content group to isolate specific Studio units for them.
4. Click Save.

[Image Placeholder: Screenshot of the modern Instructor Dashboard Cohorts panel highlighting the Add Cohort creation screen]

Step 4: Manually Assigning Learners

Method A: Direct Form Entry

1. Under Cohort Management at the bottom of the Cohorts page, select your target group from the Select a Cohort dropdown.
2. Open the Manage Learners tab.
3. In the Add learners to this cohort text block, paste your target usernames or email addresses (separated by commas or line breaks).
4. Click Add Learners. Any matching profiles shift into the cohort immediately.

Method B: Bulk Upload via CSV File

1. Under your selected cohort data workspace, click the Assign students to cohorts by uploading a CSV file option.
2. Click Browse to select a .csv file from your machine.
   • Note: Ensure your spreadsheet columns use the clean header labels email or username.
3. Click Upload File and Assign Students.
4. Verify Upload Success: Go to the Data Download page. Under the available reports section, locate and download the generated cohort_results CSV report file to review successful entries or rows with formatting errors.

Crucial Logic Rule: Learners can only belong to one cohort at a time. If you manually move an existing learner into a new cohort, they are instantly removed from their old group. This row-by-row logic applies to CSV uploads as well; if a student appears twice in your file, the system assigns them to whichever cohort is listed last.

Modifying and Restructuring Cohorts

• Renaming Groups: Select a group from your dashboard dropdown, open its Settings tab, type a new text value into the Cohort Name field, and click Save. This updates all historical forum tags instantly.
• Deleting Groups: The system does not allow you to delete a cohort once it is created. However, you can rename it, toggle its assignment logic from Automatic to Manual, or manually move its active learners into alternative cohorts.
• Disabling the Feature: To turn off groupings completely, clear the Enable Cohorts checkbox.