Cohorts (groups of responses) can be reported on in two ways within Brilliant Assessments

Informal cohorts, which can be any grouping of responses providing they used the same assessment or an assessment with the same structure. Informal Cohorts are selected using the Cohort Report Manager screen.
Formal cohorts, where the responses are grouped from the beginning. They fall into three categories:
- a team or group with multiple responders, showing the team perceptions, team alignment, or similar; or for when responders answer specific parts of the assessment, based on their role.
- a 360, or 360 style assessment, where the subject is a person
- individual responders, where multiple responses show change over time (such as before or after training)

Responses included in Cohorts can also receive feedback reports based on each response if appropriate.

The respondents can either be nominated by a Brilliant Assessments Administrator or Assessment Manager, or by a team contact or the subject of the assessment.

Formal Cohorts

Cohort initiations is a feature that allows an Administrator or Assessment Manager to invite respondents to manage their own Cohort. Cohort Initiations can also be set up by respondents themselves if you set up an external link that allows that.

For Cohort Initiations, the Identifier is called the "Subject", the Subject may be:

a team name for a team assessment
an individual name for a 360
an individual name where there are multiple responses from one respondent

There are four different Cohort Initiation creation approaches available:

The System Administrator or Assessment Manager can create the Cohort Initiation for the Subject, and then upload all of the respondents (who will receive an email type Cohort Respondent inviting them to complete their response).
The System Administrator or Assessment Manager can create the Cohort Initiation for the Subject, and send an email of type Cohort Initiation inviting them to specify the respondents (who will receive an email type Cohort Respondent inviting them to complete their response).
If the Assessment is setup for External initiation of the Cohort, the Subject (for a 360 or single respondent) to the Contact (for a team assessment) can create the Cohort Initiation and then specify the respondents (who will receive an email type Cohort Respondent inviting them to complete their response). It is possible to have a credit card charge on this option.
Either the System Administrator/Assessment Manager of the subject/contact can create a Cohort Initiation that will be responded to Anonymously. They are supplied a URL for each role which they can distribute to respondents. No personally Identifiable Information is required by the system.

The system can optionally automatically produce the cohort report and email it (using a Cohort Report type email template) to the subject or contact on a predefined Completion date, provided the required number of responses have been received. The completion date and required number of responses are defined by the administrator when they initiate the Cohort.

Setting up for Cohort Initiations

Site Settings

To activate the cohort initiation functionality you must select the Cohort Initiation checkbox in the settings menu. (Read more about Settings)

Assessment Roles

Assessment Roles are often used for aggregating the responses in the report. For example, in a team report, you may have different roles or functions that you want to separate in the report. For example, In a 360, you may have Roles of Your Self and Your Team, or Your Self, Your Manager, Your Peers, Your Subordinates. Your report is not limited to reporting by role, it is a frequently used option.

You must add at least one role on the assessment for a cohort initiation.

The Role is used as the identifier for responses from this role. It is automatically transferred to the Report Identifier field in Response Settings when the responses are created (by the Send Invitations function), for later use in the Cohort Report.
A Customer Type can be associated with the role, and this will be copied into the Response when it is created. Customer Types are used to differentiate the emails to be sent, asking the respondent to complete a response. Typically you would want two customer types for this - one for the email to the subject ("Self") and one for all of the other raters - just so you can word it appropriately. (Read more about Customer Types.)
The Receives Report field is only used when the Assessment Settings Cohort Report Recipient field is set to "As Specified for the Roles". It is used when a copy of the report is to be sent to respondents. The options available are to
The Minimum Number of Respondents is the number of completed responses need for the automatic production of the report (after Completion Date). All roles for the assessment must have their minimum number. It is valid to have zero if there is no requirement for responses from that role. It does not affect the production of the report through the Cohort Report Manager.
The Is Subject checkbox applies to 360 Reports and ensures that the subject of the report is, by default, invited to assess themselves (as well as other people they specify).

Assessment Settings

The Assessment setting relevant to Cohort Initiations are:

Select the Cohort Type. The available options are:
- Group. The main effect is the subject is one field, assumed to be a group name.
- Single Respondent. The subject is First and Last name, and automated reassessment is invoked
- 360. The subject is the First and Last name of the person being rated.
Default days to Completion. This is used to create the recommended requested completion date in the Cohort Initiation. It can be overridden. This date is used in the emails to tell everyone asked to respond the date they must complete their response by. On that night the system will automatically produce the report, providing the minimum number of responses have been received.
Default days to Reassess. This field will only appear for Single respondents. The system will automatically create a new response request after this number of days. This can be overridden if a System Administrator or Assessment Manager is creating the initiation (i.e. it isn't created from by a respondent (using a URL with an External ID)
Recurring Reassessment Count. This field will only appear for Single respondents. The system will automatically create a new response request this number of times. This can be overridden if a System Administrator or Assessment Manager is creating the initiation (i.e. it isn't created from by a respondent (using a URL with an External ID)
External Cohort Initiation. Select this Checkbox if you want users to be able to automatically create cohorts. Users will be taken to a screen where they create the cohort, then specify the raters that will contribute to the report. See the Section on External Cohort Initiation below that shows the screens they complete.
Cohort ExternalID This field only appears if External Cohort Initiation is selected. It is a unique identifier for this assessment that is specified as part of the URL to launch a cohort Initiation. The external ID can not have spaces in it, dashes and underscores are allowed.
Cohort Report This field only appears if External Cohort Initiation is selected. You specify the Cohort Report that will be used to produce the report. The report must be already set up in the Cohort Report Manager. Only reports attached to this assessment can be selected.
Default BCC This field only appears if External Cohort Initiation is selected. This is the blind copy destination for the report. This will be overridden if the URL specifies an organization that had a bcc specified.
Hide Business Name. Only applies to the Cohort Initiation from an External Link. The Business Name is suppressed.
Contact Email Address. This email address is only used to create an email link in error messages in the Cohort Initiation from an External Link process. Specifically, the message displayed when the user attempts to invite more respondents than they have purchased.
Respondents Selection. Only applies to the Cohort Initiation from an External Link There are three options as to how the respondents may be specified by the user.

The format of the URL https://[your subdownain].brilliantassessments.com/CohortReporting/Initiate?Cohort=[External ID]

Email Templates

You need to set up Emails Templates for st least some of the following:

If you are inviting the subject to invite respondents you need an email template of Email Type Welcome Cohort Initiation (note this is not required if
- the System Administrator or Assessment Manager is adding the Respondents or
- the Cohort Initiation is being created from an External URL - the system will take them onto the respondents' screen automatically)
For inviting respondents to complete an assessment of the subject you need an email using the template type Welcome Cohort Respondent. We recommend that you use Customer Types so you can send different Email wording to the Subject and the others. The Customer Type can be specified on the Cohort Role for this purpose.
To send a link to the Cohort Initiation when Credit Card Payment is received. The workflow is for the system to take the user straight to the initiation, so this Link provides the mechanism to reenter the initiation screens at a later point.
To send a progress report to the contact showing how many respondents have completed their response, by role.
To automatically send the cohort report on the completion date you need an email template with the type Cohort Report. The report will be sent the night of the completion date or later providing the minimum number of responses that have been completed.
To send follow-up emails after the Cohort is complete, possibly to market reassessments or other assessments. You may have any number of follow-ups at specified intervals after completion.
(Read more about Emails)

Site Text

If the Assessment is setup for External initiation of the Cohort or you are getting the subject to invite the respondents, you should provide instructions that are pertinent to your assessment. These are set up in the Site Text table.

The name of the Site text will be used as the heading of the screen for the Credit Card screen, the Cohort Initiations, and the Cohort Respondents.
Specify the language, if Multi-Lingual Assessments are being used.
The Text Type will be
- Credit Card Screen for text on the Credit Card payment Screen.
- Cohort Initiations for the screen to create an initiation from an external link
- Cohort Respondents for the screen to add Respondents.
The assessment can be selected. If specified this text only applies to that assessment and the default will be used for any other assessments.
The Customer Type is not applicable to these Text types
Enter the instruction text you want to show the user. This can be fully formatted. It will appear beneath the Name (1) which is used as the heading.

Cohort Initiation from External Link:

Unless the Credit Card Process has been selected, an External Link will take the user straight to this screen. If the Credit Card Process has been selected, the credit card payment will be taken before this screen is displayed.

The header and footer banner colors are set in the Site Settings screen, Called Respondent Header and Respondent Footer. The logos are loaded into the Graphics table as the Respondent Header and Respondent Footer.
The Heading is the Name field from the Site Text screen.
The instructions are from the Text field in the Site Text screen.
The fields shown are those required for the Cohort Type.

Cohort Respondents Screen

The Cohorts Respondents screen is shown either

after the Cohort Initiation from an external link
when the system administrator or assessment manager has added an initiation and the subject will invite the raters who will be invited to respond to the assessment.

There are three options, based on the Respondents Selection field on the assessment settings.

Details Input: in which case the user is prompted to enter the email address name and role for each respondent.
Email Address input: in which case 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.
Support Anonymous Respondents: in which case URLs are supplied for each role, so that invitations can be sent outside the system. No personally-identifying information is required.

Option 1 Detail Input

The header and footer banner colors are set in the Site Settings screen, Called Respondent Header and Respondent Footer. The logos are loaded into the Graphics table as the Respondent Header and Respondent Footer.
The Heading is the Name field from the Site Text screen.
The instructions are from the Text field in the Site Text screen.
Click 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 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.
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.

Option 2 Email Address Input

The header and footer banner colors are set in the Site Settings screen, Called Respondent Header and Respondent Footer. The logos are loaded into the Graphics table as the Respondent Header and Respondent Footer.
The Heading is the Name field from the Site Text screen and the instructions are from the Text field in the Site Text screen.
The Roles from the Assessment Roles are Listed. For each role, the user should copy and paste email addresses from their email system.
Click Add Respondents will interprete 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.
The list of Respondents entered into the system. These can be edited or delted from this list.
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.

Option 3 Anonymous Respondents

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

The header and footer banner colors are set in the Site Settings screen, Called Respondent Header and Respondent Footer. The logos are loaded into the Graphics table as the Respondent Header and Respondent Footer.
The Heading is the Name field from the Site Text screen
The instructions are from the Text field in the Site Text screen.
The URL's to be copied and sent to respondents. All responses will be linked to the Subject and the role specified.

Assessment Structure

Any assessment can be used for Cohort reporting and initiations but there are two optional techniques that are often used to improve the assessment in this scenario.

In a 360, duplicate each question, and ask it using wording appropriate to the respondent, be that the subject or the other respondents. For example, "Do you share your strategy with staff members?" vs "Does [name] share their strategy with staff members?". This is done by having a question that uses a Smart Question Short Name to bring the Role into the assessment. Subsequent questions are then conditional on whether the respondent's role is as "the subject" or one of the other raters. Assuming the questions are in the same subsection, all of the scoring will work the same as normal.
In 360's and team assessments, use question piping to bring the subject name into later questions in subsequent sections.

Using the role to customize questions.

Usually in the first section of the assessment, set up a question with a Question smart name (in the Question Short name field) of "Role"
Create a Single Choice Answer for each role that is used for the assessment. The Answer Short Name must be an exact match for the Role Code in the Cohort Roles list.
The system will automatically populate the answer to that question.
The Question maybe Hidden (by selecting the hidden checkbox on the Advanced tab of the Question dialogue box). However, we recommend that you test it is working as you expect before hiding it.
Make subsequent question conditional on the answer to that role question, either the Subject answer or one of the others (using the Or function in Conditional Questions

Using the Question piping to personalize questions.

Usually in the first section of the assessment, set up a question with a Question smart name (in the Question Short name field) of "Subject"
Create a Text Answer with the Answer Short Name of "Subject First Name".
The system will automatically populate the answer to that question.
The Question maybe Hidden (by selecting the hidden checkbox on the Advanced tab of the Question dialogue box). However, we recommend that you test it is working as you expect before hiding it.
In subsequent sections use Question Piping to personalize questions (e.g. "Does {ResponseAnswer.AnswerText[S1 SS1 Q10]} share their strategy with staff members?" would appear as "Does Tom share their strategy with staff members?"

Cohort Report

Create a Cohort Report in the Cohort Report Manager (Read more about the Cohort Report Manager). When automatically producing the Cohort Report at the completion date, the system will add the subject to any other filters you have specified in the Cohort Manager (usually none). When creating the Report Template consider using these merge strings or features (unless noted below these features are documented in the Cohort Report Building article):
- When creating the responses the system will populate the Reporting Identifier with the Role. Therefore using all the graphics merge strings with a SplitType=I (often the default) will split the graphic by role.
- When printing individual text answers (for answers to questions like "what can [the subject first name] do better" using ResponseAnswer.AnswerText, adding the parameter of SplitType=I will list each individual answer given.
- You can report the actual number of responses received by Identifier (Role) using the merge string ResponseDetails.Complete
- You can list the respondents invited to respond, those that did respond, or those who didn't, optionally by role.
- You can show the average score for each identifier (role)
- You can show the subsection rating text based on the average score based on the scores from one identifier (role).

Testing Cohort Initiations

Use the Cohort Initiation menu item to create invitations to subjects. This function is detailed here.
Responses created by Cohort Initiations will appear on the Response list with the subject as an extra column. This column can only be populated using the Cohort Initiations functionality. Complete at least the minimum number of responses.
The report will arrive on the day after completion date, provided there is an Email template with a type of Cohort Report. However, you can have run it manually before then using the Cohort Report Manager.

Articles in this section

Setting up Cohorts in Brilliant Assessments