Checklist: Opening your cohort for enrollment

Congrats—you've published your landing page, and you're ready to open your cohort for enrollment! Once you do, students will be able to secure their seats in your course.

Below is a guide to help you ensure your cohort is ready for students to join.

Step	To-do
Confirm important dates	In your course settings, confirm you have correctly set the: Start and end date: these are the first and last days of your cohort. The end-of-course survey will be sent on the end date and time. The course certificate will be sent 24 hours after the course ends. Portal open date: this is the date your students will be able to enter the student view and begin using the community features and accessing the course content. You can keep your content locked until later by setting module release dates in your syllabus. Most instructors keep the portal closed until 1-2 days before the cohort starts. Payment deadline: this is the final date and time students can pay for your course. When this passes, the course will go back onto a waitlist. Set this for the first day of your cohort, so students can join until it starts. Application deadline (optional): this is the final date and time students can apply for your course. Using an application is optional. When this passes, the course will go back onto a waitlist.
Finalize events	Ensure all events are published. When students enroll in your course, all the events will be added to their calendars in a moment of delight! Add Zoom links if needed. Zoom pro is required for sessions longer than 40 minutes and to use Maven's automatic recording options. Read more about Maven's integration with Zoom here.
Review syllabus content	Finalize all module, lesson, and project titles. Students will only be able to see the titles until either the portal open date or module release dates pass. (Optional) Lock content by setting module release dates. (Optional) Set due dates for lessons. When you set due dates, we'll send students a reminder to complete their work about 24 hours before it's due. Set due dates for projects. Due dates help keep students on track to complete their work and engage with the course.
Turn on Maven's community feature	Ensure the community is toggled ON in your course settings. Customize the intro template. Post your own introduction to help welcome enrolled students once the student portal date has passed. Familiarize yourself with the available channels. Review your course "Home" (aka "student view"). Get here by clicking the "Student view" button from the bottom of the black navigation tool bar or by clicking "student view" in the Syllabus tab. Ensure your content is displayed as you expected!
Customize emails to enrolled students	Customize the "Enrolled" email: this is sent to students immediately upon enrolling in your course. Find this email under "Emails --> "Automations" --> "Onboard new students." Customize the "Enrolled free" email: this is sent to anyone you add to the course for free. Find this email under "Emails --> "Automations" --> "Onboard new students."
Customize the cohort launch campaign	You'll find this campaign in the Emails tab of your course. Read through and customize all the emails in the campaign. Find suggestions for customizations on each email. Send yourself a test email to check formatting and variables.
Add a discount	Create an "early bird" discount for your waitlist lists. Include this in the first email of your Cohort launch campaign. Check out how to create discounts here. You must connect your course to Stripe to create discounts.

Congrats - now you're ready to open your cohort for enrollment! 🥳

To officially make your cohort live so students can pay and secure their spots, click the green "Open cohort for enrollment" button in your course settings:

👉 After you open your cohort for enrollment, here's what's next:

Your Cohort launch campaign will begin sending the day after you open your cohort for enrollment to everyone on your waitlist.
Your course will be listed on Maven.com once it reaches these milestones.
Now that your course is live, plan to host a Lightning Lesson about 2 weeks before your course starts to help build your funnel.

Please reach out to [email protected] for further questions about opening your cohort for enrollment.