One course can reach hundreds of learners at once, and a cohort is how you define that audience. A cohort is a named group of learners you can enroll in a schedule as a batch instead of one at a time, then review as a group in analytics. This guide covers creating a cohort, filling it with whichever of the three methods suits the learner data you already have, and keeping it current as your audience changes.

Select Cohorts under PEOPLE in the left navigation, then select Create new in the top right to start a cohort.

The page also lists every cohort your team already has, so check it before creating a new one. Reusing an existing cohort beats maintaining two copies of the same audience.

Cohorts can multiply fast, so a consistent naming convention keeps them findable months from now. We recommend combining the organization name, the group type, and the date, like "Sales Reps 2026-06-10 Roster".

In the Create a new cohort window:

You use one of those three options, not all three. Pick the one that matches the learner data you already have.

Each option has its own section below, and you only need to read yours. You can also select Or continue without adding learners for now, which creates the cohort empty so you can fill it later.

Uploading a file is the usual way to build a cohort, and it takes three columns per learner: their email, an address type, and an address value.

Select Download a template CSV file in the upload step to start from a file that already has the columns in place, then replace the sample rows with your own. Arist accepts CSV and Excel files up to 50 MB.

Email is worth getting right, because it is how a second upload updates a learner you already have instead of creating a duplicate. (A workspace setting can waive the email requirement, but it is on by default.) One exception to the address columns: Slack addresses come from the Slack integration rather than a file, so rows carrying one are flagged as errors instead of imported.

Add as many other columns as you find useful. Beyond the three above, the template also carries first name, last name, timezone, and language, and any column of your own becomes learner metadata on each learner's profile. That metadata personalizes delivery, like sending course content in a learner's preferred language, and dynamic rules read it later.

When you upload the file, a short guided flow walks you through the rest, in four steps: Choose file, Preview, Map columns, Import. Nothing is imported until the final step, so you see your data the way Arist read it first.

The preview comes right after the upload.

Check that the rows look right, make sure First row contains column names matches your file, and select Continue.

Next comes Map columns, where Arist suggests a match between each of your column headers and its own learner fields, so you confirm the mapping rather than build it.

A green check marks each matched column, and any column can be reassigned from its dropdown. Anything you leave unmapped is not imported, so glance down the list before you continue. Complete the import and the cohort is ready.

When the learners you need are already in Arist from an earlier upload, the Add learners step gives you a picker to choose them.

Open the Select one or more learners dropdown, choose everyone you want in the cohort, then select Confirm. This suits smaller groups, pilot audiences, and test cohorts, where picking by hand is quicker than preparing a file. Back returns you to the cohort details if you want to adjust the name or preferred timezone first. To see who is already in your workspace before you start, check the Learners page, covered in Viewing and Managing Learners.

A dynamic cohort manages its own membership, so nobody has to re-upload a roster every time your organization changes. Rules match against learner data you already hold in Arist. They read built-in fields like first name, last name, email, and language, plus any learner metadata you have added, including the extra columns from a file upload.

Rules work without an integration, and they are easiest to keep current with one. When your HCM or HRIS system is connected to Arist via API, the cohort follows records that system already keeps up to date, so there is no upload to repeat and no spreadsheet to re-check.

Membership then stays current on its own. As learner data changes, newly matching learners are added and learners who no longer match drop out, with no re-upload from you.

Use the search bar and Filters to find a cohort fast, and read the list columns to judge each one at a glance: # of Learners counts the learners in the cohort, # of Schedules shows how many sends it is enrolled in, and Last edited shows how fresh it is. A cohort with zero schedules and an old edit date is a candidate to clean up.

When your organization uses teams, # of Learners counts only the learners on the team you have selected. A cohort's own learner list shows that team's members alone. A cohort built across several teams therefore shows a smaller count from inside any one of them.

This applies to every role, Org Admins included. Select the Default team to see the whole organization again.

Use the three-dot menu at the end of a cohort's row to manage, analyze, duplicate, or delete that cohort.

Selecting Manage opens the cohort so you can edit its learners, Analyze opens its analytics, Duplicate copies it, and Delete removes it.