Articles in this section

Setting Up External Cohort Initiations

Avatar
Molly
  • Updated
Follow

This article explains how to configure External Cohort Initiations, which allow you to automate and outsource the cohort process to your customers. It covers both approaches - outsourcing respondent invitations and fully automated external management - along with screen customization and respondent selection options.

External cohort initiations are a cohort configuration option that allows you to automate and outsource the cohort process to your customers. For a full breakdown of cohort concepts and how to choose the right setup for your assessment, please see our guide: Cohorts Overview.

There are two different external cohort initiation approaches you can take. These vary in the level of automation to suit your needs:

Outsource the inviting of respondents Fully automated for external management

Good for:

When you have the contact/subject details but don't know who the respondents are going to be.

Good for:

When you're unsure who the contact/subject or respondents will be or if you want to automate the cohort process fully.
  • The System Administrator or Manager manually creates the Cohort Initiation in the system.
  • The system then sends an email with a link to a page where the contact can add and invite their own respondents (respondents will receive an email inviting them to complete their response).
  • The System Administrator can set up the assessment for external initiation via a URL link.
  • The Cohort Contact clicks the link and is taken to a page where they input cohort details.
  • They then move to a page where they invite the respondents. It's possible to have a credit card charge on this option (respondents will receive an email inviting them to complete their response).

Tips: You can enable automatic iterative feedback on external initiations. This means that if the cohort contact is taking the cohort assessment for a second time, the system will give them the option to run a report that compares their results over time.

On this page

External Cohort Setup Instructions

Both options start with the same setup instructions.

Step 1 - Enable External Cohort

Head to Assessment Settings > Cohort > Cohort Settings and tick External Cohort.

Step 2 - Fill out the configuration fields

Field Description
Cohort ExternalID Enter a unique identifier that will form part of the shareable URL for external cohort initiations. Don't use spaces, dashes or underscores.
Default bcc Enter an email address to be the default bcc recipient. This will be overridden by an organization with a bcc specified.
Hide Business Name Tick if you want to hide this field from the external initiation page.
Hide Cohort Completion Date Tick if you don't want external initiators to be able to select a cohort completion date. The system will use the default days to completion to generate a completion date.
Hide Cohort Min Number of Responses Tick if you want to hide this input field for external initiations.
Hide Cohort PDF Password Tick if you want to hide the PDF password input field for external initiations.
Use Contact Email as BCC Tick to set the contact's email address as the BCC email address for externally initiated cohorts.
Contact Email Address If selected, the External Cohort Initiation process uses this as a contact email address for users purchasing additional responses (only applicable when Per Person charges are being made).
Respondents Selection

Choose either:

  • Details Input: The user is prompted to enter the email address, name, and role for each respondent.
  • Email Address Input: The user can copy and paste a list of email addresses from their email system for each role. If the name is present it will be stored, but it is not required.
  • Anonymous Respondents: URLs are supplied for each role, so that invitations can be sent outside the system. No personally-identifying information is required.

Press Save.

Tip: It's a good idea to test the process at this point so you can decide which elements to customize on the external cohort screens. Click Copy URL to be taken to the external initiation screens.

copy URL article.png

Step 3 - Understand and customize your screens

The cohort initiation screens are:

  • The Cohorts screen. This is the landing page when you click on the cohort initiation URL. The cohort contact fills in details about themselves and the cohort here. Some fields on this page can be hidden if needed. This screen is not visible if you are outsourcing the inviting of respondents only.
  • Respondents selection screen. This is where the cohort contact enters respondent details. The screen looks and functions differently depending on whether you choose Details Input, Email Address Input, or Anonymous Respondents. This is the landing page if you are outsourcing the inviting of respondents only.
  • Drivers screen. If you have drivers enabled, the cohort contact will be taken to a page where they can select which drivers they are using.

Note: Each screen view below includes customization steps for banner colors, logos, instructions, and buttons.

Screen View 1: Cohort Initiation Page

This screen is only shown for fully automated cohorts.

Cohort Initiation User input screen.png

To add instructions to this page, use the site text type Cohorts. The page title is the Name field when adding the site text.

  1. Banner colors: Edit the Respondent Header and Respondent Footer fields in Site Settings. Applies to all pages.
  2. Logo: Add the Respondent Header and Respondent Footer graphic type in the Graphics table. Applies to all pages.
  3. Instructions: Add as site text in the Site Text tab of Assessment Settings. The site text type varies per screen (noted below).
  4. Buttons: Customize using Translations.

Screen View 2: Driver Selection

This screen only appears if drivers for cohorts are enabled.

driver selection.png

To add instructions to this page, use the site text type Drivers Site Text. The page title is the Name field when adding the site text. You can also change the drivers title using Translations.

  1. To change the banner colors, head to site settings> and edit the Respondent Header and Respondent Footer fields. This will apply to all pages.To add a logo, head to the Graphics table and add the Respondent Header and Respondent Footer graphic type. This will apply to all pages.
  2. Add instructions to this page as site text. Head to the 'Site text' tab of assessment settings to do this. The site text type to add is 'Drivers Site text'. The page title is the name field when adding the site text.
  3. Driver selection table. Change the name of the drivers title using Translations.
  4. Customize the  save button using Translations.

Screen View 3: Respondent Selection

The Cohort Respondents screen is shown either:

  • After the Cohort Initiation from a shareable link.
  • When the system administrator or assessment manager has added an initiation and the subject follows the link in their email to invite the raters to respond to the assessment.

There are three options, and you select which one you want to display in the Respondents Selection field on Assessment Settings.

To add instructions to any of the respondent screens below, use the site text type Cohort Respondents. The page title is the Name field when adding the site text.

Details Input

Users are prompted to add each participant one at a time. They fill out the name, role, and email address.

Cohort Respondents User.png

  1. To change the banner colors, head to site settings > and edit the Respondent Header and Respondent Footer fields. This will apply to all pages.
  2. To add a logo, head to the Graphics table and add the Respondent Header and Respondent Footer graphic type.This will apply to all pages.
  3. Add instructions to this page as site text. Head to the 'Site text' tab of assessment settings to do this. The site text type to add is 'Cohort respondents'. The page title is the name field when adding the site text.
  4. Customize the buttons using Translations.
    • Clicking Add Respondent will prompt the user for details of the people they wish to invite to respond to the assessment.
    • Once the list is complete, they should click Send Invitations. Invitations (in the format of an email with a link for them to enter their response) will be sent to all those not previously invited.
  5. The list of respondents entered into the system. The subject (or contact for Team assessments) will be automatically added with the role that has "Is Subject" selected in the cohort roles. In edit or add mode, classifiers marked as Admin Entry and linked to this assessment will be available for entry. If the classifier is also marked as "Values set by Organization", a dropdown list will show the available values for the organization (or the parent of the organization).

Email Address Input

The user can copy and paste email addresses directly from their email system in the role fields. The first and last names are automatically picked up and added to the respondent record. It's easy for users to copy a whole email distribution list into the system to add respondents to a cohort.

Cohort Initiation User Option 2.png

  1. To change the banner colors, head to site settings > and edit the Respondent Header and Respondent Footer fields. This will apply to all pages.
  2. To add a logo, head to the Graphics table and add the Respondent Header and Respondent Footer graphic type.This will apply to all pages.
  3. Add instructions to this page as site text. Head to the 'Site text' tab of assessment settings to do this. The site text type to add is 'Cohort respondents'. The page title is the name field when adding the site text.
  4. Customize the buttons using Translations. 
    • Clicking 'Add Respondent' will prompt the user for details of the people they wish to invite to respond to the assessments.  
    • Once the list is complete, click Send Invitations.
  5. The list of Respondents entered into the system.  These can be edited or deleted from this list.
  6. Once the list is complete, they should click Send Invitations. Invitations (in the format of an email with a link for them to enter their response) will be sent to all those not previously invited.

How this screen works:

  • The roles are listed as fields to enter email addresses in. For each role, the user should copy and paste email addresses straight from their email system.
  • Clicking Add Respondents will interpret the email addresses supplied and create respondent records in the list below. Only the email address is required, but if the name is available (which it usually is), it will also be extracted.

add email address input.gif

Anonymous Respondents

This option lists URLs by role for the contact to distribute. Using this method, no personal details are required.

Cohort Initiation User Option 3.png

The URLs for each role can be copied and sent to respondents. All responses will be linked to the subject and the role specified.

  1. To change the banner colors, head to site settings> and edit the Respondent Header and Respondent Footer fields. This will apply to all pages.
  2. To add a logo, head to the Graphics table and add the Respondent Header and Respondent Footer graphic type.This will apply to all pages.
  3. Add instructions to this page as site text. Head to the 'Site text' tab of assessment settings to do this. The site text type to add is 'Cohort respondents'. The page title is the name field when adding the site text.
  4. The URL's for each role can be copied and sent to respondents. All responses will be linked to the Subject and the role specified.

Email Templates for External Initiations

You should set up email templates for your external initiation. For full details on email configuration, see Choosing the Right Email Template and the Email Templates Overview.

  • Welcome Cohort - Sends a link to the Cohort Respondents page.
    • This is helpful for cohort contacts because it provides a link back to the respondents screen so they can add more people later on.
  • Cohort Initiation Auto Reminder - Sends a reminder to invite respondents.

There are other email types covered in the main cohort setup article.

FAQs & Troubleshooting

Use the questions below to troubleshoot common external cohort initiation issues.

+ Can I switch between respondent selection types after launching?

Yes. You can change the Respondents Selection setting under Assessment Settings > Cohort > Cohort Settings at any time, and the changes will take effect immediately.

+ What happens if a cohort contact loses their initiation link?

Ask the cohort contact to find the original email in their inbox - it should contain the initiation link. If you have the Welcome Cohort email template enabled, that email will also include a link back to the respondents screen.

+ Can I charge per person for external initiations?

Yes, you can enable credit card charges on external cohort initiations. For full details on setting up payments, see Monetization Overview: Ways to Charge Your Assessments.

Next Steps

Return to Set Up a Group Cohort Initiation or learn more about Cohort Settings Explained.

Related articles

Comments

0 comments

Please sign in to leave a comment.