Understanding Sections and Cohorts in openSIS

Understanding Sections and Cohorts in openSIS

Overview

The Sections/Cohort feature in openSIS helps institutions organize students into smaller academic groups within a grade level, program, or academic structure.

Depending on the institution type, these groups may be referred to as:

  • Sections
  • Cohorts
  • Batches
  • Academic groups

This feature helps administrators manage scheduling, reporting, attendance, and academic organization more efficiently.

Accessing Sections/Cohort Settings

To access this section:

Notes
Settings > School Settings > Sections/Cohort

The screen displays:

  • Existing sections or cohorts
  • Sort order
  • Edit and delete options
  • Add new section/cohort option

What Are Sections?

Sections are smaller student groups commonly used in K-12 institutions.

Examples:

  • Section A
  • Section B
  • Section C

Schools often use sections to:

  • Divide large student groups
  • Organize classroom schedules
  • Assign teachers
  • Simplify attendance tracking

What Are Cohorts?

Cohorts are groups of students progressing together through a program or academic structure.

This is commonly used in:

  • Higher education institutions
  • Universities
  • Professional programs
  • Training institutions

Examples:

  • Nursing Cohort 2026
  • MBA Batch A
  • Freshman Cohort

How Sections/Cohorts Are Used in openSIS

Sections and cohorts may be used across:

  • Student scheduling
  • Attendance management
  • Academic reporting
  • Student organization
  • Course assignment
  • Administrative filtering

They help institutions maintain structured academic groupings throughout the system.

Sorting and Organization

Administrators can:

  • Reorder sections/cohorts
  • Maintain display sequence
  • Organize academic groups consistently

The sort order affects how records appear across various screens and reports.

Managing Sections/Cohorts

Administrators can:

  • Add new sections/cohorts
  • Edit existing records
  • Delete unused records
  • Reorder records using drag-and-drop sorting

Best Practices

  • Use clear and standardized naming conventions.
  • Keep section or cohort names short and meaningful.
  • Maintain consistent ordering across academic years.
  • Avoid duplicate naming structures.
  • Review dependencies before deleting records.