Dynamic Cohorts

Dynamic cohorts is an Open LMS plugin created to automate the assignment and management of cohort members based on rule sets. It supports creating cohorts in the system and category contexts. 

There are options built into the tool to create new cohorts or migrate existing cohorts to be managed by Dynamic cohorts. The user interface includes options to see the members using a similar user interface to the native cohorts functionality. 

Getting Started

To access this feature go to Site administration > Users > Dynamic cohorts (in the Accounts section). The default page shows a list of cohorts managed by this tool. In addition, you have buttons for migrating existing cohorts and creating new ones. 

Basic Settings

When choosing to migrate an existing cohort, you'll have the option to search and import any existing cohorts not managed by another plugin. You'll have the option to assign a role to the cohort, whether to keep the users currently in the cohort or not, and a few other settings unique to the Dynamic cohort tool. 

When choosing to create a new cohort, you'll first choose a name and then decide whether it's a system context cohort or a category context cohort (if category you'll need to choose the category the cohort is linked to).

You'll have the option to set a Cohort ID - this is useful for places where the Cohort ID is searchable and actionable, but the cohort name is not, although it's not required to set the ID. You'll be able to set whether it's visible or not - this determines whether the cohort displays in places like course enrollment lists. You can also set a description.

Advanced Settings

Role to be assigned
You can automatically assign roles to members of the cohort. Where the role is assigned is determined by the context of the cohort. A system level cohort will display roles that can be assigned in the system context, whereas category cohorts will display roles available to be assigned in the category context.

A user must have permission to assign the role in the context the role will be assigned to — if not, then they won't be able to save the change to the settings.

Note: be careful using this as every member of the cohort will get the role assigned to them, so if you give instructor-level role to a cohort everyone in that cohort will have those permissions.

Sync priority
Sync priority is a special option that controls the order of cohort processing. A higher number means a higher priority, so it will get process before a cohort with a lower number. If all cohorts are the same priority, they'll generally process in the order of creation. There is a special case - priority zero (0). When setting that option the cohort will not process it's rules automatically. It will only be possible to run the rules manually.

Keep users

If checked this option will retain the users if they no longer match the criteria. For example, if a cohort includes everyone that has a certified status for a given certification, and you have the option checked, when a user's certification expires they'll stay in the cohort, but if this option is unchecked, the user will be removed from the cohort.

Sync when user updated
This option simply means the rules will attempt to run as soon as a user's account is updated. Depending on your settings and circumstances that means rules could be running often, which may have a negative performance impact. 

Sync on first login
Runs the rules for a cohort the first time a user logs into the site. Some user values and settings are only triggered/set after a user logs in - this option means a cohort rule sync will run soon afterward to assign any pending cohort memberships. This can have a negative impact on performance and should not be enabled unless needed. 

Managing a Dynamic cohort

Once you've migrated or created a Dynamic cohort, you'll be presented with four tabs: General, Additional users, Members, and Sync logs. Other tabs may appear depending on the actions taken and options enabled. The General tab provides a high-level summary of the Dynamic cohort including the settings, rule sets, total user count, and the timestamp of the last sync. From this tab you can update the settings or choose to update the rules. 

The Additional users tab shows any manually assigned users. The Members tab shows a running list of membership that is searchable and filterable by name. The Sync logs tab shows a history of the actions tied to this plugin as well as the option to manually run the sync by clicking the three vertical dots in the top right hand of the page. 

Setting Up Rule Sets

If you're creating a new cohort using the Dynamic cohort tool as soon as you save the new cohort you'll be taken to the Update rules tab. This tab is not always visible. If you don't see it go to the General tab and click on "Update rules."

Start by clicking the "Add rule" button. This will bring you to a list of the available rule types. Rules depend upon options and plugins enabled on your site, so not all rules will be visible. Below is a list of most rule types, separated into a few categories along with some related information. 

User Fields

• Active users only
• Suspended users only
• User country
• User department
• User email
• User ID Number
• User institution
• User language

Custom User Fields

This will depend on the custom user fields set up on your site, but the system supports the following types:

• Taxonomy — will display a list of choices based on the taxonomy linked to the chosen profile field
• Checkbox
• Date/Time
• Drop-down menu — will display the choices
• Related user — the two options are "has direct reports" and "has indirect reports" 
• Text input

Programs

This option lets you pick programs and add users who have completed the chosen program to the cohort.

Certifications

This option lets you pick certifications and add users that have a valid certification status.

Other

• Cohort members — pick other cohorts to combine members of different cohorts
• Completed courses 
• Exclude cohort members — exclude users who are members of a given cohort
• Exclude users — specifically exclude certain users
• Tenant user separation - this is a special case that is automatically added if the user setting up the cohort is within a tenant that prevents them from creating a cohort with users outside of their tenant, but it can be used by site admins as well.