Cohort-based courses let you run the same course with different groups of students, each with its own schedule, student roster, enrollment settings, and pricing.
Instead of creating a completely new course every time you run your program, you create one master curriculum that serves as the foundation for your cohorts. You can then link a cohort directly to the master curriculum or copy the curriculum when you need to customize the content for a specific cohort.
When you copy the master curriculum, GroupApp reuses the overlapping content. Only new or edited content in the copied curriculum takes up additional storage.
1) Go to the Admin Panel and click Courses under Learning.
2) This opens the Courses tab.
3) Click + Add Course.
4) In the pop-up, enter your Course Name and Summary.
5) Choose the type of course you want to create:
Self-paced Course: Students can enroll at any time and progress through the course at their own pace. This works best for on-demand and evergreen courses.
Cohort-based Course: Students join a group that follows a defined schedule, with its own roster and live calls. This works well for bootcamps, group programs, and other courses that run with different groups over time.
Important: You cannot change the course type after the course has been created.
6) Select Cohort-based Course.
7) Click Create Course.
This opens the management area for your new cohort-based course. From here, you can create and manage cohorts, build your curriculum, configure pricing, review cohort activity, and manage the main course settings.
The cohort-based course is organized into FOUR main sections.
The first section is where you manage the individual cohorts running under your course.
At the top, you'll see quick stats including:
Number of active cohorts
Number of students
Number of cohorts with open enrollment
As you start running your program, you'll also see your Active, Upcoming, and Completed cohorts here.
1) Click Create Cohort.
2) A pop-up will appear.
3) Enter the Cohort Name. Use a name that makes the cohort easy to identify and connects it to your main program. Including the year and intake period can also help, such as Fall 2026.
4) Enter a clear, brief Description.
5) Select the Start Date and End Date for the cohort.
6) Choose the Curriculum Source for this cohort. You have three options:
Use Master Curriculum: The cohort stays linked to your master curriculum. The master curriculum is the main course curriculum you create once and can use as the foundation for your cohorts. Any changes you make to the master curriculum automatically flow into this cohort. Use this when the cohort should always use the latest version of your course content.
Copy Master Curriculum: Creates a standalone copy of the master curriculum as it exists when the cohort is created. After that, you can edit the cohort's curriculum independently without affecting the master curriculum or other cohorts. The master curriculum acts as your starting template. GroupApp reuses the overlapping content from the master curriculum, so only new or edited content in the copied version takes up additional storage.
Copy from Existing Cohort: Creates a standalone copy of another cohort's curriculum. Once copied, the new cohort is independent, so future changes do not affect the original cohort. If you haven't created any other cohorts yet, this option will not be available.
7) Click Continue.
The next step lets you configure enrollment for this specific cohort. You can click Back if you need to change anything from the previous step.
1) Set an Enrollment Deadline. This determines the date when enrollment for the cohort automatically closes.
2) Set the Cohort Capacity. This determines the maximum number of students who can enroll in the cohort.
3) Turn on Show Seats Remaining if you want members to see how many seats are still available when choosing this cohort on the checkout page.
4) Click Continue.
5) Review your cohort details on the final step.
6) Click Create Cohort.
Your cohort is now created, and GroupApp will open its management area.
From an individual cohort, you can manage its details, curriculum behavior, instructors, channels, content drip, students, pricing, and settings.
The Overview tab gives you access to:
Quick stats and recent activity
Cohort details
Curriculum source
Instructors
Linked channels
To add an instructor, click the instructor field, search for the person you want to add, select them, and click Save. Please note that you can only add instructors who are assigned to the course as admins or moderators.
To attach channels to the cohort, click the channel field and select the channels you want to link to this specific cohort. Click Save when you're done.
Please note that you can link one channel to only one cohort per course.
Open the Drip tab to configure when course content becomes available to students in this cohort. You can configure content drip for each cohort independently.
Open the Enrollment tab to view and manage the students enrolled in the cohort.
You can also manually enroll students:
1) Click Enroll Students.
2) Select students from the list or use the search field to find them.
3) Click Enroll.
You can also take the following actions in the Enrollment Tab:
View Progress reports
Grant full access manually to students
Manually unlock lessons
Expire/Reactivate enrollment
Remove students (cohort-only)
Export enrollments (CSV emailed).
Open the Pricing tab to configure pricing for the cohort.
Open the Settings tab to manage the settings available for the individual cohort. Click Save after making your changes.
The Curriculum section is where you build the main curriculum that serves as the foundation for your cohort-based course.
You can structure the curriculum just like a regular GroupApp course by creating sections and adding lessons within them.
Click + Add Section to start building your curriculum.
This becomes your master curriculum. When creating individual cohorts, you can either keep them linked to this curriculum, create an independent copy of it, or copy the curriculum from another existing cohort.
The Pricing section lets you create pricing options for your cohorts. Each pricing item enrolls a student into one specific cohort.
You can create multiple pricing options for the same cohort. For example, if you want to offer Early Bird, Standard, and a different payment option for the same cohort, create separate pricing items and point each one to that cohort.
If you want to sell enrollment into a different cohort, create a new pricing item and assign it to that cohort.
1) Click the Pricing tab.
2) Click + Add Pricing.
3) The pricing builder will open.
4) Enter a Pricing Name, such as Fall 2026 Early Bird.
5) Use the Enrolls Into Cohort drop-down to select the cohort this pricing option should enroll students into.
6) Enter the Pricing Description.
7) Choose the pricing type: paid or free.
8) If you select Paid, enter the one-time price for the cohort.
9) Configure any additional pricing options you want to use, including:
Add-ons
Benefits
Additional Pricing Settings
10) Click Save.
Once the pricing option is saved, it can be shown on the checkout page for students enrolling in that cohort.
The Settings section controls the main course information and settings used as the foundation for your cohort-based course.
Open the Settings tab and configure the main course details:
Course Title
Brief Summary
Thumbnail Image (recommended)
Background Cover Image (recommended)
Course Intro Video (if required)
Description
Next, configure the course access and display settings:
Configure the Lock Screen, if required.
Set the Access Level.
Set the Visibility.
Add the course to a Category, if needed.
Configure Events Lesson Access.
You can then configure any other additional course settings based on how you want the cohort-based course to work.
Once you're finished, click Save.
Your cohort-based course is now ready to use. You can continue creating new cohorts under the same course and choose whether each cohort should use the live master curriculum, start with an independent copy of it, or use the curriculum from an existing cohort.
You can create one-time pricing options for individual cohorts. What members see on the checkout page depends on the Access Level configured for the main cohort-based course.
Here's how one-time cohort pricing works with each access level:
By Plans: The checkout page gives members the option to choose between the one-time cohort price and the membership plan that provides access to the cohort-based course.
Paid Members: The checkout page shows the one-time cohort price alongside the available paid membership plans.
By Segments: The public checkout page only shows the one-time cohort price. However, existing community members who belong to the specified segment can access the cohort-based course and enroll in the cohort through their existing access.
One-time Pricing: The public checkout page only shows the one-time cohort price.
Free: The public checkout page only shows the one-time cohort price.
Note: If you haven't created a one-time pricing option for a cohort, the checkout page will follow the Access Level and Visibility settings configured for the course.
Certificates are currently issued at the course level, rather than separately for individual cohorts.
This means you can issue a certificate for completing the overall cohort-based course, but you cannot configure a different certificate for each cohort.
You can close a cohort when you no longer want new students to enroll or when that cohort has finished.
When a cohort is closed:
Existing enrolled students keep access to the cohort content.
New students cannot enroll in the closed cohort themselves.
You can still manually enroll students into the cohort.
Cohort actions, such as marking assignments as complete, are no longer available.
To close a cohort:
Go to the Cohorts section of your cohort-based course.
Find the cohort you want to close.
Click the three-dot menu on the cohort card.
Select Close Cohort.
Note: Students cannot enroll themselves in a cohort once it is closed or full. However, an admin can enroll students manually to a cohort if it's closed. However, if a cohort is full, an admin cannot add students manually as well.
Cohort actions start again, and members can join this cohort while enrollment is open.
To reopen a cohort:
Go to the Cohorts section of your cohort-based course.
Find the cohort you want to reopen.
Click the three-dot menu on the cohort card.
Select Reopen Cohort.
You can use Workflows to automate actions based on cohort enrollment and completion.
Cohort-related workflow triggers include:
Enrolled in a Cohort
Completed a Cohort
You can use these triggers to start a workflow automatically when a learner enrolls in or completes a cohort.
Cohort-related workflow actions include:
Add to a Cohort
Remove from a Cohort
These actions let you automatically add or remove members from a cohort as part of a workflow, helping you manage cohort enrollment alongside your other community automations.
