Ms. Chris F. Willis, Media 1 CEO, recently returned from presenting a session on designing and delivering cohort learning at the eLearning Guild Learning Solutions 2010 conference. We asked Chris to share a few highlights from her session for those who could not attend.
You titled your session Cohort Learning: The Ultimate Blended Learning Experience. What is cohort learning?
Cohort learning courses are taken by groups of learners who enroll at the same time and complete a series of related learning experiences together and on their own. Most higher education courses are delivered as cohort learning, whether they take place entirely in a classroom, or as a distance — or blended — learning experience. A cohort class typically culminates in some form of individual or group capstone project (or learner-generated content), and group interactions are a critical part of the cohort learning experience. This is a key differentiator between cohort learning and the self-paced online learning courses or webinars that are common in today‘s corporate environment.
Why is cohort learning “The Ultimate Blended Learning Experience?”
A creative cohort program can take advantage of all of the online and offline elements that we currently use in designing blended learning – online or offline presentations, scenarios, interactive games, simulation exercises, workbooks, learner generated content, etc. The difference is the same group of cohorts has multiple chances to interact with each other, online or face to face. This opens up new opportunities for many types of social learning interactions or competitive exercises that can build on each other over time.
What kinds of programs are best for cohort learning?
Cohort learning provides the most benefit for learning intended to shape opinions, beliefs, and values. In fact, research shows there are little or no gains by teaching fact-based knowledge in a cohort environment versus self-paced learning. Cohort programs can be somewhat intensive to develop and require one or more instructors and/or coaches to deliver and guide learners or review their assignments. Because of this, corporate cohort classes should be geared toward high stakes programs where failure is costly and success pays back quickly:
- Onboarding new team members
- Developing High Potential (HiPo) leaders
- Sales force development
- Context for curriculum-based experiences
How are cohort programs delivered?
Online cohort programs require some form of collaborative environment with tools to enable and guide both individual and group participation. This can be accomplished through a custom social learning portal that resides outside of an LMS. Alternately, an online course can be designed as a cohort learning framework within an LMS and link to bolt-on collaborative applications or outside activities not otherwise available through the LMS. Reusable cohort portals or frameworks can be updated and reused for each subsequent cohort class.
What technology is required?
Practically any eLearning technology you have available to you can be adapted as a cohort learning framework. You can develop what we’ve dubbed a Course as a Portal using any of the common eLearning development tools and then add on social learning functionality as your IT environment allows. Microsoft SharePoint® is an especially useful tool for developing a cohort learning portal because of all the social learning elements available through most SharePoint installations.
To learn more about cohort learning, or for assistance in designing your own custom cohort portal, contact Media 1:
www.media1.us | solutions@media1.us | 616.935.1155
For a full eLearning Guild conference debrief, including video testimonials by attendees, visit http://www.learningsolutionsmag.com/articles/441/. Real-time attendee comments about sessions and keynotes were captured during the event at Twitter hash tag #LS2010.
Chris Willis
Harrison Withers
atroccko
John Chapin
AliciaMarie Belchak
media1bill
MWykes
November 11th, 2011 → 3:43 pm
[...] sharp contrast, social learning frameworks for cohort learning programs tend to be universally well-received, with most social media features utilized by participants [...]
November 15th, 2011 → 11:16 am
[...] sharp contrast, social learning frameworks for cohort learning programs tend to be universally well-received, with most social media features utilized by participants [...]