# Course Administration: Cohorts

## Overview

Cohorts split a course's learners into groups. Each group gets its own discussions and can be shown content meant only for that group. The **Cohorts** card describes it as: "Split learners into groups for discussions and cohort-specific content."

Cohorts are off until you turn them on. While they are off, the card reads "Turn cohorts on to create groups and assign learners to them."

## Target Audience

**Course staff** | **Administrator**

## Features

#### Enabled / Disabled
The switch at the top right of the card turns cohorts on or off for the course.

#### New cohort
Enter a **Cohort name**, choose how learners join it, and click **Create**:

- **Manual**: you add learners yourself.
- **Automatic (random)**: learners are spread across the automatic cohorts as they arrive.

#### Cohort list
Each cohort shows its name and "{n} learners · manual" or "auto-assigned", with **Manage**. With no cohorts yet, the list reads "No cohorts yet."

#### Manage a cohort
**Manage** opens the cohort:

- **Name** with **Rename**.
- **Assignment**: Manual or Automatic (random).
- **Add learners**: "Usernames or emails, separated by commas or new lines", then **Add to cohort**. The result counts who was added, who moved from another cohort, who was already there, who was pre-assigned before creating an account, and any unknown or invalid entries.
- **Remove a learner**: enter a username and click **Remove**.

Click **Close** to collapse it.

## How to Use

#### Step 1: Turn cohorts on
Flip the switch to **Enabled**.

#### Step 2: Create cohorts
Add a cohort for each group, for example one per campus or section.

#### Step 3: Assign learners
Click **Manage**, paste the learners' emails into **Add learners**, and click **Add to cohort**.

#### Step 4: Use them
Filter the [Grades](grades.md) table by cohort, and set discussion topics to be divided by cohort.