Cohort Creation in System Administration
Cohorts are a collection of students in a program. The most common use case is to combine the program name and the graduating year. For example, BA Bilingual Education 2022.
To create a cohort, from system administration go to Data Variables. After the page loads you will land on the cohort’s sub-tab. Cohorts can only be created manually at this time, so click on Create New Cohort.
Affiliated Organization*
This is the organization that you would like to select to tie to the hierarchy. Functionally, this is required to filter the programs for the next field. To activate a list of programs, the user must select the direct parent of the program (most likely a department). The user cannot just select the institution node then see all programs.
Program
The program that will be tied to the cohort. The program will serve as the main card to access a licensure plan in Gateways, so it is the main organizing object between determining different sets of licensure plans.
Entry Term*
When students are entering the cohort. In real world examples this could either be when they enter the university, or when they get accepted into a licensure program (such as student teaching).
Projected End Term
When students are estimated to leave the cohort. In real world examples this could either be when the student graduates or when the student has completed all necessary licensure plan requirements.
Description*
Additional information related to the cohort. This will only show up in SysAdmin. The user will notice in Data Transactions that the Gateways Batch Processing has failed if they just change description because Gateways is not accepting that information.
Code*
Code serves as the unique identifier as well as the title of the cohort. This is what will be pulled into Gateways and must be unique.
Status
This is created after a cohort is created. It is automatically set to active, and an active cohort will be able to connect a licensure plan in Gateways. The reason why you would want to set this status to inactive would be to archive this cohort down product so that no more information could be collected with this set of students in Student Learning & Licensure.
Cohort Enrollments
Once the cohort is created, it is time to add students. Navigate in SysAdmin to the Enrollments area and go to the second subtab titled Cohorts.
The user should see the already created cohorts. The next step is to navigate to the pencil Edit icon to begin adding students.
To Search, the user must input something in the search field, they cannot complete an empty search. Once you have searched and found a student, you can add them by selecting the user + the checkmark next to their name. Once you have completed the list of students, navigate to Save Enrollments to finalize the changes.
Now that the cohort and its enrollments are ready, we can now begin work within Gateways.
Cohorts in Gateways
Once a cohort has been created in SysAdmin, the batch process will start to push it to Gateways, you can monitor the progress of this by going to Data Transactions. If you recently created the cohort, the transaction should appear at the top of this list.
Once you have received the message “The Batch Processing has completed,” you can now navigate to Gateways.
Upon the Gateways landing page you should see the list of programs you are aligned to based on your organization affiliation. Select the desired program and navigate to the sub tab Cohort. At this point you should see the cohort. Clicking on the cohort title at this point will confirm the students that are already enrolled in the cohort. Additionally, if you are ready to connect the licensure plan to the cohort, navigate to Connect To Licensure Plan.
NOTE: Depending on the size of the cohort, the cohort data being pushed into Gateways will not be automatic. Please allow around 10 seconds or more to have the data pushed into Gateways. If you are the cohorts page in Gateways and do not see the updated information, navigate to the Licensure Plan subtab and then back to Cohorts to allow for a page refresh.
Connecting a Cohort To Licensure Plan
When the user is ready to connect the cohort to the licensure plan to begin collecting data, click Connect to Licensure Plan.
Schedule Release
A user can either connect the Licensure Plan on the current day (the default) or they can schedule it for the future.
For sending notifications, this functionality is not yet developed so this field does not actually perform an action.
Finally, the user will need to confirm that they are ready to connect the licensure plan. This means that data can then be collected against requirements (essentially it goes live). Checking the box confirms you are ready to do this and then the user can Connect to Licensure Plan. NOTE: Once the licensure plan is connected, the user can no longer return to this page.
If the date was scheduled for today or in the past, the user can then access their licensure plan workspace. If the date is in the future, the user can return to this screen and edit the release date is needed. Once the release date is the current date, the cohort will become active with the licensure plan.
Active and Archived Cohorts
If the cohort has been connected, the cohort card’s label should reflected this by saying Licensure Plan Connected.
The cohort will automatically be moved under Active Cohorts. This is different than the cohort status.
Active Cohort
If a cohort is connected to a licensure plan and is controlled in Gateways. The cohort status in System Administration also needs to be listed as Active. Active cohorts will be able to add data to the licensure plan.
Cohort Status
This is the field in System Administration previously described. A cohort needs to have a status of Active in SysAdmin in order for it to be connected to a Licensure Plan.
Archived Cohort
A cohort can become archived if the cohort status in SysAdmin is changed to Inactive or by clicking on the trash bin icon in the cohort card. A user can still access the Licensure Plan workspace, but can no longer add any data (files, reviews, etc). A user can reactive a cohort by ensuring that the cohort status is active and by clicking on the restore plan link.
NOTE: An archived plan can still have a cohort plan of Active, but you cannot have an Active cohort with the SysAdmin Cohort status of Inactive.