With the Cohort Management Experience, you're able to have increased visibility to what's happening within a cohort and more controls to create them on your own. You also have the ability for Dynamic Cohort set up and activity tracking. From the Cohorts Tab you also be able to bulk upload learners into the system.
Bulk Uploading Learners
In the Arist platform, you can upload large numbers of learners via a CSV file. To start, go to your Cohorts tab in the left navigation of the Arist dashboard. Then click the Create New button.
From here you'll be taken to a flow where you can choose the type of cohort you want to create. There are three options:
Upload via CSV
Clicking this option allows you to upload a CSV file if you already have a file prepared. If you need help preparing your CSV file for Arist there is also a link to download a Template CSV that contains the proper formatting and required information for your learners. This option is best for importing large numbers of learners at the same time.Select from Existing Learners
If you already have the learners you need uploaded previously you'll be able to search for them using this option and add them individually into the cohort. This is a good option for smaller groups or setting up testing cohorts for content.Create a Dynamic Rule Based Group
If you have uploaded custom metadata for your Learners, or integrated your HCM, HRIS system with Arist via API, creating a Dynamic Rule Based Cohort is an incredibly powerful tool for automated management of Learners within your organization. You can choose from unique values and set rules to automatically pull in learners to the cohort. As Learner values change (e.g. a new hire gets a role added to their record in your HRIS) the cohort will pull that information and add them automatically. You can also set custom roles to remove or exclude specific Learners based on the values you provide.
Pro tip: If you already have your learner pool separated into Cohorts, we recommend constructing an individual CSV for each Cohort and then Upload each as their own new Cohort. If this is something you haven't done yet or want to do later, you can create a Cohort called "All Learners" and then add these Learners manually to more specialized cohorts as needed.
Formatting And Uploading Via CSV
CSV formatting can be a bit tricky, but it is integral to successfully upload Learners to Arist in bulk. The primary thing to keep in mind is that the Email field is needed by the Arist platform as an identifier AND an address if you intend to send learning via email. The Email column header is used to create the Learner record, it is not used for any email communication.
This is why you have to also add email to the 'address_type' and 'address_value' columns. The SMS 'address_type' and 'address_value' is used for all text message communication.
Learners that will receive communication via Teams and Slack will automatically be uploaded to Arist after installation of their respective integrations.
Fields Accepted by Arist:
The following fields are column headers you can use when uploading Learners to Arist. They must be formatted as below:
address_type - "sms, email, sms_whatsapp"
address_value - The email address, phone number, or WhatsApp number to be used. Phone numbers should be with no dashes (e.g. 5557771234). We also accept numbers in E164 format (with country code e.g. +15557771234). For more info on formatting your Excel columns to support E164 format, check this page. When formatting WhatsApp numbers, they should be prepended by the value 'whatsapp:' then 'phone number' like so: (whatsapp:+15551234567).
email - This is the field used to create the Learner record in Arist. It will accept any valid email.
first_name - Learner first name.
last_name - Learner last name.
timezone - Timezone the Learner is located in. Follow the timezone formats from this page. Only the left side values are ingested, and do not use quotation marks.
cohorts - The names of cohorts the Learner is part of.
Custom Metadata - You also have the option to create custom fields if you wish which can be used when creating rule based groups or automations within the platform. To do this, create a new column with the name of what the field should be (e.g. unique_id) then place the values for each user in that column. When you upload the CSV you'll be able to select those columns and map them as custom fields.
Mapping Your CSV
Once you're ready to upload, drag the file into the uploader or select it manually from your computer.
Once it processes you should see a preview of the columns and data you're uploading. If everything looks correct then click continue.
The next page will allow you to match fields to where they need to go in the Arist Platform. If you've followed our formatting guide this should be already matched automatically for you. If you're uploading custom metadata, you will see those denoted at the bottom of the field mapping screen.
Simply click them to add them to the import and then click the dropdown menu and scroll to the bottom and select add as custom field.
Once everything is mapped click continue. The next screen will allow you to see all fields that will be uploaded and verify the information looks correct. Click continue and the CSV will import and provide a report highlighting the number of records successfully imported and any errors that might have occured. You will then be taken to your new Cohort ready for use.
Pro Tip: If you have a group of new learners that you need to add to the cohort but they are included in the CSV with the original set, you can still upload the full file and the system will add those new learners while recognizing the existing Learners and preserving their data.