Cohorts
Create a dated group of students that follows one program, then build its classes and track its results.
A Cohort is a dated group of students following a single program, for example "Fall 2024". The program supplies the structure, the cohort supplies the people and the calendar, and the classes you create for it are where teaching actually happens.
Cohorts live under Instruction → Cohorts.
Before you start
- The program must already exist. A cohort cannot be created without one, and the program cannot be changed afterwards.
- You need the Create Cohort permission, which can be granted organization-wide or for a specific program.
- Know your start and end dates. Both are required.
Creating a cohort
There are two ways in, and they behave differently:
- Instruction → Cohorts → New Cohort. You choose the program yourself.
- A program's Cohorts tab → New Cohort. The program is filled in for you and locked, because you are already working inside it.
Nothing is saved until the last step
The cohort is created when you submit on Review & Submit. Leaving the wizard before then prompts you about unsaved changes, and continuing discards the draft along with any students you had selected.
Step 1: Cohort details
Every field on this step is required.
| Field | Required | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Cohort Name | Yes | How staff and students recognise the group, for example "Fall 2024" |
| Program | Yes | The program this cohort follows. Locked if you started from inside a program |
| Start Date | Yes | When the cohort begins |
| End Date | Yes | When the cohort ends. Must be the same as or later than the start date |
The program cannot be changed later
Once a cohort exists, the Program field is locked in the edit wizard. If a cohort is attached to the wrong program, create a new cohort under the right one and delete the mistake before students and classes accumulate against it.
Step 2: Select students
Move students from the Available list into Selected. You can search either side, and move people one at a time or all at once.
- AYAmrani Yasmineyasmine.a@example.com
- BOBenali Omaromar.b@example.com
- CSCherkaoui Salmasalma.c@example.com
- IKIdrissi Karimkarim.i@example.com
- ONOuazzani Nadianadia.o@example.com
You can create the cohort empty
This step can be left with nothing selected. Enrolling students later means editing the cohort and returning to this same step, which is also the only place students are removed from a cohort. If you have a whole intake to add, import them first with Importing students, then select them here.
Step 3: Select moderators
Moderators are the staff who manage this cohort, its classes and its students. The selector works exactly like the students step. It can also be left empty.
Step 4: Review and submit
The review step lists the details, the enrolled students (long lists are summarised as "and N more students"), and the assigned moderators. Each card has an Edit button back to its step. Submitting creates the cohort and enrolls everyone you selected.
Running a cohort
The Overview tab is the working home of a cohort.
Students
32
Classes
5
Courses
12
It shows:
- Status, derived from your dates: Upcoming before the start date, Active while running, Ended afterwards, with a countdown such as "Starts in 3 weeks" or "2 months remaining".
- Classes, listing the cohort's classes with Add Class to create another.
- Moderators, with a link to manage them.
- Quick Actions: Add Class, Edit Cohort and Delete Cohort.
Creating classes for a cohort
Select Add Class from the cohort. The class form opens already set to program-based mode, with this cohort's program and the cohort itself filled in, and every student in the cohort pre-selected. Deselect anyone who should not be in that particular class before you submit. See Classes for the rest of the class setup.
The Students tab
One row per enrolled student, with columns for Student, Last Name, First Name, Email, Phone, Classes, Attendance Rate, Access Status and Enrolled Date. You can search by name or email and filter by class and by access status.
Per-student actions are View profile, Export student card and Export transcript. Selecting rows reveals bulk actions.
Most bulk actions are not implemented yet
Of the bulk actions on selected students, only Export to Excel works. Remove from cohort, Assign to classes, Export student cards, Export transcripts, Export certificates, Export administrative papers and Send communication all show a "Coming soon" message and do nothing.
To add or remove students, use Manage Students, which opens the edit wizard on the students step. Removing someone there and submitting takes them out of the cohort.
The Gradebook tab
The cohort gradebook is a view onto a program gradebook, filled in for the students of this cohort. Pick a gradebook from the selector, then read or edit values inline. It gives you Avg, Min and Max per column, a filled count such as "18 / 32 filled", search, a filter by class, a column picker and Export.
An empty Gradebook tab means the program has no gradebook
Gradebooks are defined at the program level, and the program-level gradebook setup is not available in the interface yet, which is why this tab shows "No gradebooks have been created for this program yet" for most organizations. Once a gradebook exists for the program, it appears here for every cohort in that program. For per-class marks in the meantime, use the Gradebook.
Finding cohorts
The cohorts list is a table with columns for the date range, start date, end date and active classes, and you can pin, resize, reorder and hide columns. Summary cards show Total Cohorts (broken down into active, upcoming and completed), Total Students Enrolled with an average per cohort, and Active Classes across all cohorts. Filter by program, start date and end date.
The row menu offers View Details, Edit, Manage Students, Manage Moderators, Create Class and Delete, each shown only if your role allows it.
Deleting a cohort reaches further than the cohort
Delete warns that the action cannot be undone and will affect all enrolled students and classes. A cohort that has simply finished does not need deleting: its status becomes Ended on its own once the end date passes.
Troubleshooting
That is deliberate. The program is locked when you started from inside a program, and it is always locked when editing an existing cohort. A cohort keeps the program it was created under for its whole life.
The end date must be the same as or later than the start date. Check that you did not set the year on one of the two dates by mistake.
The bulk Remove from cohort action is not implemented yet. Use Manage Students instead, which opens the edit wizard: move the student out of Selected and submit.
No gradebook exists for the parent program. Gradebooks are configured at the program level, and that configuration is not exposed in the interface yet, so the tab stays empty until a program gradebook exists.
Enrolling in a cohort does not enroll anyone in a class. Create classes from the cohort with Add Class, which pre-selects all the cohort's students, and adjust the selection per class.
The list draws on students who exist in your organization. Create the student under Students, or bulk-import a whole intake with Importing students, then come back.