Gone are the days when online learning has been termed a waste of time. If you are a course creator, you know how the e-learning industry has transformed drastically in the past few years. Meanwhile, a concept known as Cohort-Based Courses (CBCs), for short, has become highly popular. There is something very different about cohort-based learning that has been increasing rapidly for some years. Normally, these courses are highly preferred by students in higher education who want to grasp more in a limited time and in the right environment. So if you plan to create a community to support CBCs, this blog is for you. Keep on reading if you want to know more about CBCs and the best ways to create your online courses.
What is Cohort-Based Learning?
A cohort-based learning concept is typically based on traditional learning methods where learners participate and learn together at a definite time, but online. You must have heard about live classes before. These are slightly different from the evergreen courses. Usually, cohort-based courses include 16-35 students further divided into separate sections to learn together. Also, the classes are time bound and open for enrollment for a definite period only. This way, learners get a dedicated environment to gain knowledge and clear their doubts. So how about creating a community website to support CBCs? That’s why we are here. Also, we will talk about LearnMate LearnDash in the later section to build a thriving community.
Reasons to Create an E-Learning Community for CBCs
Cohort-based courses allow students to grasp knowledge and indulge in discussions with fellow students to absorb concepts through analytical and critical approaches. Learners get a dedicated environment to study and connect with people with the same interest to develop a team spirit and increase motivation. So how about creating an online community supporting a cohort-based learning approach? Let’s have a look at the various reasons to build your online learning community.
1. Better Completion Outcomes
Cohort-based courses help learners in many ways. It has been observed that the completion rate is relatively higher in CBCs than in traditional courses. Since learners have the advantage of learning in their environment, completion rates are much higher than in traditional courses. CBCs help learners get a better platform to freely express their doubts and queries by asking course creators during real-time sessions. Thus we can say the outcomes are quite higher, resulting in higher course success. So when you build an online community for CBCs, completion rates increase significantly as they get a dedicated and active platform with other learners.
2. Keeps Up the Interest- Cohort-Based Courses
How often do you join a course and stop attending classes later? In short, learners easily lose interest in things, especially in courses. So how would you ensure interest and excitement among your students? As a course creator, you need to look for ways to keep your learners engaged. Building an e-learning community to support cohort-based courses offers an excellent solution for course creators to keep their learner’s interests intact. As CBCs create a learning environment for students, they are likely to attend more to get something exclusive when they have a dedicated community for themselves.
3. Learner’s Community- Cohort-Based Courses
When you build an online community of learners, they don’t benefit only from the course but the community. Learners join the e-learning communities to connect with other learners to share knowledge and information. That’s why Cohort-based courses have gained immense popularity in the past few years. Remember, CBCs cannot gain a higher level of success without a rich and highly-interactive community. Because the idea is to bring people together for the same learning purposes. Offering a community to CBCs helps them gain a platform where they meet people with similar knowledge and build relationships.
4. Active Learning Approach
Building a community around CBCs encourages learners to indulge in discussions, case studies, group discussions, and problem-solving to create a learning environment. In short, it offers learners a dedicated place to develop a problem-solving attitude and build a sense of confidence. So do you think cohort-based courses are only for learners? No, both course creators and learners gain something from CBCs.
5. Develops Team Spirit- Cohort-Based Courses
When a person joins an online course, the chances to interact with other students are slightly low. However, with Cohort-based learning, learners build a whole community around them to learn together. This way, whenever a student is stuck on a question, they have a sense of satisfaction that they can ask others about it. Also, professionals organize events such as group discussions and assign group projects. So why not offer them a dedicated community to learn and thrive with other learners in a better environment?
Things to Keep in Mind While Building an E-Learning Community
Before building any community, it is crucial to understand why your audience needs it. Similarly, you need to have a look at a couple of things before planning to launch your CBCs. First, find out why your audience will join a community. Are you able to solve their problems through your community? Do your goals align with your audience? That’s why you need to test and explore ideas before preparing and launching your cohort-based course. Here’s what you need to find out:
- First, you need to look at the completion rate of the members to check how they are responding to the other courses in your community. Compare the completion rate of different courses and note the differences.
- Ask open-ended questions to your members to get more responses. Ask your learners about their responses after the end of cohort-based courses. Allow them to share what they gained from their community.
- Focus on how your learners engage with your community. Measure their engagement rate and compare to prepare data for your upcoming CBCs.
Why is LearnMate LearnDash the Ideal Choice for Building E-Learning Communities?
There are several options in front of you to build your e-learning community. However, LearnDash seems to be the most popular choice by course creators. Pair the Learndash platform with the LearnMate Learndash theme for a complete solution. There is no better way to create your cohort-based courses than this. It is a dedicated solution designed for creating professional e-learning websites. Still, want to know why it is the most preferred choice? Here is what to know about it:
- Coming-Soon Feature – Want to market your new course before the launch? LearnMate LearnDash theme comes with a coming-soon module to help learners know about upcoming launches.
- Course Review Feature – LearnMate LearnDash allows course creators to increase credibility in their e-learning community. Learners can easily rate and review the courses to let people know about their experience.
- Memberships and Plans – Want to include a membership feature in your e-learning community? The theme allows you to add memberships and plans to your cohort-based courses to protect and monetize your exclusive content.
- Related-Courses Section – No need to go through a complex process to add the related-courses sections. LearnMate LearnDash allows e-learning professionals to add a related course section to different parts of the website.
Gain from the Dominance of CBCs
If you have created an online community before, you know how difficult it is to bring your community to life. However, the cohort-based courses help course creators build a whole new community from their course who are ready to explore a unique learning experience. You can use interactive activities in your courses to keep them engaged, like group discussions, quizzes, critical thinking, problem-solving tests, and many more. Also, don’t forget to choose the right platform to build CBCs, like LearnMate LearnDash. For more queries and doubts, feel free to share your thoughts in the comments section.
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