And set it up EXACTLY how you like it!
What is a “cohort”?
Sterling is organized just like your students–in cohorts. A “cohort” is a group of students who move through the curriculum together.
In Sterling the only difference in tools and tracking between an EMT cohort and a Paramedic cohort is the presence of the CoAEMSP Student Minimum Competency (SMC) matrix.
Clone an existing cohort
We’ve equipped you with a couple of sample cohorts–first-time users will clone one of these. ALL factors within the cohort setup are customizable and editable. As you learn how the system works you can make adjustments to current or future cohorts.
Best of all, once you get one “just right” you never have to think about it again! Just CLONE it!
Navigate to the Cohort Editor.
Find the cohort you wish to clone and click CLONE.
Give your new cohort a Title and choose all the courses to reproduce the exact structure (which can always be edited/changed). Then, click the CLONE button.
Now, you’ll see your new cohort. Next we’ll go in and EDIT cohort settings. The red highlighting indicates that the cohort is not yet “live” where students can enroll. The Enrollment code is shown here for your convenience and is also available on the main dashboard.
Edit an existing (or recently cloned) cohort–Basic Settings
Check the information for accuracy and adjust the start and end dates for the cohort. You can also choose to show to students all courses all the time OR you may wish to show and hide by date.
Set how you wish to pay–either students pay individually or you can have us invoice you. You’ll FOR SURE need to change the “Make Live” setting to YES to allow students to enroll.
Click SAVE when you are finished with basic settings. This will kick you back out to the Cohort list.
Course Settings
Re-enter the settings interface by finding the cohort you wish to edit and click EDIT. (Notice, if you did not change “Make Live” to YES in the previous sequence, your cohort will still be highlighted in red. Tan indicates it is ready to receive enrollments).
Next, we’ll click COURSES on the left hand tab to access Course Settings.
In Sterling, there are currently two types of courses:
- “Classroom” (where skills sheets interaction happens) and
- “Clinical” where students author reports.
From this same interface you can also delete courses, add new courses, rename courses, reorder course display, and otherwise make them your own. Customize Sterling to meet YOUR needs.
Classroom Courses (lab skills)
You may add or subtract skills from a Classroom course by clicking the SKILLS button. For skills which you may need in EVERY course (like Team Leader or Team Member), you can use the button at the very bottom Assign Cohort Level Skills.
If you are automating which courses show when, use the EDIT button to adjust the course dates. This is the same area you would visit to change the name of the course.
Clinical Courses (Student-authored reports)
Control Dates
You can automatically show and hide courses based on dates. This helps make sure students do not put reports into the wrong course. If there is a gap between the end of one course and the beginning of the next, leave the old course open until the new one starts–this ensures students always have access to reporting tools in case of need for edits (for example, if you re-open an old shift for them.
NOTE: make sure there is always at least ONE “Clinical” course open–otherwise students will not have access to the PCR tools in case of the need to edit old reports, etc.
Control Report Types
To help students choose the right report type, you can use Course Settings to indicate which report types are allowed in each course.
Edit the SMC
The default setting of all SMCs within Sterling reflects the CoAEMSP minimums. Should you have changed any of those, you can display those expectations to all involved by using the EDIT SMC tab.
Simply navigate through the tabs and make needed adjustments.
Suggested Edit of SMC (to help students)
We’ve noticed that Table 1 can be misleading to students and faculty alike in the area of Required Neonates.
However, in Table 2, the student must complete a TOTAL of 5 “Distressed Neonates”–THUS, we recommend that you edit Table 1 to reflect 5. This will simply bring the two tables into alignment saying the same thing, so no Advisory or Med Director approval is required.
