Cohorts and live sessions

A course is either self-paced, with lessons that open from each student's enrolment, or taught in cohorts. A cohort is one run of the course with its own dates, seats, enrolment window and live session times. Students choose a cohort when they enrol or buy, and lessons that open after a number of days count from the cohort's start.

Choose Self-paced or cohorts in the course's Settings. It can change only before anyone enrols and while the course has no cohort that is not cancelled.

Make a cohort

1. In the course's Cohorts tab, choose New cohort, enter a name, such as March 2027, and the date it starts. The cohort is made as a draft in the course's time zone, and its page opens.
2. Set its facts, each saved where it is shown:
   • Ends: the last day of the cohort. A cohort needs an end date to be published.
   • Time zone: the zone its dates and session times are set in. Students see times in their own zone.
   • Seats: how many students it takes. Leave it empty for no limit.
   • Enrolment opens and Enrolment closes: by default, enrolment opens when the cohort is published and closes when it starts.
3. Set the time of each live session under Live sessions.
4. Choose Publish cohort. If something is missing, such as the end date or a start that has not passed, the button says what to set first.

Once published, the cohort is on the course page with its dates, the seats left and its first live session, and its start is an all-day event on the Calendar of the course's instructors. A course can have up to 200 cohorts.

Duplicate cohort… in the cohort's More menu makes a draft with a new name and start date. The seats, the enrolment window and the session times are copied, moved by the same number of days. A cancelled cohort can be duplicated too, with the session times it had when it was cancelled.

A course taught in cohorts takes no students until it has a published cohort that is open for enrolment. Students who enrol, and supporters whose Supporters tier includes the course, choose a cohort that is open for enrolment. When students are added by a member, the member chooses the cohort, and may add them outside the enrolment window.

Seats and the waiting list

A student holds a seat while they have access, including access that is paused or held. When a cohort is full, the course page shows it as full with a link to its waiting list; when no cohort is open, the page offers a waiting list for the next one. Joining takes a name and an email address, with no account.

Each person on a waiting list is emailed once per cohort: when a seat opens in the cohort they chose, or when the next cohort opens for enrolment. The first to enrol or buy gets the seat. When a cohort's enrolment ends, the people still waiting for it move to the course's list for the next cohort. The cohort's page lists the people waiting, with when they joined and when they were emailed.

When the course is sold through Store, each published cohort is a choice of the course's Store product, and the cohort's seats are that choice's stock. Seats are changed on the cohort's page, never in Store. The choice is for sale only while the cohort's enrolment is open; Store follows a change within a minute. See Sell a course.

Change or cancel a cohort

Changing Starts on a published cohort with students asks first. The end date and every live session move by the same number of days, sessions keep their local clock time, and the students will be emailed the new start. Lessons that open after a number of days follow the new start, and so does an access end worked out from the cohort's end.

To change a student's cohort, use Move to cohort… on the course's Students page or the Cohort on the student's page. Their progress is kept, and their lessons open by the new cohort's dates. When access ends a number of days after the cohort ends, their access end follows the new cohort's end, unless you set it by hand. Within a minute, the old cohort's sessions are taken off their calendar and they are invited to the new cohort's.

Cancel cohort… in More closes enrolment, takes the cohort off the course page and Calendar, and emails its students and its waiting list, with a message you can write. Its future live sessions and their meetings are removed; past sessions keep their attendance. Students keep their access until you end it. Refunds are made in Store: in a course that is sold, the confirmation lists the cohort's paid orders, each opening its order in Store. A cancelled cohort cannot be changed. A draft that nobody was ever in can be deleted instead, with Delete cohort.

Students will be emailed the day before their cohort starts.

Live sessions

A live session is a kind of lesson. In its editor, Time and place sets:

• When: in a self-paced course, the session's time is set in the lesson. In a course taught in cohorts, each cohort's time is set on that cohort's page.
• Length: from 15 to 600 minutes; 60 minutes unless you change it.
• Place:
  • Zoom: a Zoom meeting is made with the Zoom host's account when the time is set. The host is someone who can edit courses and has connected Zoom in Integrations (Connect Zoom). Start the meeting in the editor opens it for the host.
  • Video call on Magpie: a Video Chat call, on Pro and Team plans. A call holds up to 6 people, the host included, so it cannot be chosen for a course or cohort with more students than that; if students join later, the editor and the cohort page say so, and you can choose Zoom or another address before the session.
  • Address: any meeting address you type. It is shown only to students with access, from 15 minutes before the start.

If a meeting could not be made or changed, the reason is shown under the session's row; set the time again, or check the Zoom connection in Integrations.

Students see the time in their own time zone on the lesson page, with Add to calendar. Join opens from 15 minutes before the start until the session ends. The meeting's address is never in an email or a calendar file; students join from the lesson page.

Each student will be emailed a calendar invitation when they get access and when a time, length or place changes, a reminder a day before and an hour before, and a cancellation when the session is cancelled or they leave its cohort. Invitations and reminders go within a minute of the change. A reminder that would arrive too late to be useful is not sent. The reminders and the recording email are switched on or off in the Emails band of the course's Settings.

Each session with a time is an event on the Calendar of the course's instructors, named after the lesson, the course and the cohort. The event changes with the session, and when the lesson, the course or the cohort is renamed; so do the Zoom meeting and the video call. It cannot be changed or deleted in Calendar.

Attendance and recordings

Once a session has started, the lesson's editor shows Attendance: everyone in the session's group, with those who pressed Join already ticked. Tick or untick students and choose Save attendance. Ticked students complete the lesson. Unticking a student later marks the lesson not complete for them, unless they completed it another way. In a course taught in cohorts, choose the cohort first. A student's page in Students lists their live sessions and whether they attended.

A live session's video row in its editor is the session's recording: add a video, or one of your Screen Recorder recordings, as for any lesson (Write lessons and add videos). In a course taught in cohorts, each cohort has its own recording. The recording plays on the lesson page for students in that session's group.

When a recording is added, the students in the session who were not marked as attended will be emailed. The email waits until attendance is saved, or a day after the session ends if it is not; until then a Join press counts as attending.

If a session's invitations or meetings do not match what the lesson shows, Contact support.