Overview
Tags and cohorts are both tools for organizing learners, but they serve different purposes. Understanding when to use each will help you manage learners more effectively, improve visibility, and keep reporting clean as your program scales.
What Are Cohorts?
A cohort is a group of learners overseen by a facilitator. Facilitators are individuals responsible for ensuring learners are on track. They may be program coordinators or support staff and do not require administrative permissions.
Facilitators can:
- View the learners progress and submissions in their assigned cohorts
Facilitators cannot:
- Evaluate learners
- Create program content
- See learners outside their assigned cohorts
Admins can see all cohorts, while facilitators can only see the cohorts they are assigned to. Cohorts can be organized by facilitator, region, graduation year, program groupings, and more.
Why Cohorts Are Useful
Cohorts create clear ownership and accountability. By grouping learners under a facilitator, each facilitator can focus only on the learners they are responsible for. This improves visibility, supports timely intervention, and creates a structured, manageable way to monitor learner progress. For information on how to implement cohorts, please see this article.
What Are Tags?
Tags are flexible labels applied to learners that allow admins to filter and analyze data across the platform. They make it easy to quickly segment learners by region, completion year, entry point, or program type, and to break down reports more effectively. Learners can have multiple tags at once, and tags are visible platform-wide to admins.
Why Tags Are Useful
Tags make it easy to organize data without adding hierarchy or ownership. When applied consistently, tags help you analyze trends, track subsets of learners, and generate more detailed reports as your program grows. For information on how to implement tags, please see this article.
When to Use Cohorts vs. Tags
Use Cohorts When:
- Learners are being actively overseen by a facilitator
- You need clear ownership and accountability
- You want facilitators to only see their assigned learners
Examples:
- Regional groups with a coordinator
- A graduating class with a program lead
Use Tags When:
- You need flexible labeling for filtering and reporting
- No facilitator oversight is required
- Learners may belong to multiple categories
Examples:
- Region
- Program type
- Entry point
- Completion year
Conclusion
Think of cohorts as a way to manage people and visibility. Think of tags as a way to organize data and reporting. Using both together allows you to maintain clear learner ownership while still keeping your data flexible and easy to analyze.
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