If you are an online course creator, you might already know that there are several types of courses that serve different purposes. If you plan on creating online courses for learners to work together as a group, cohort-based courses are your best bet.
Since 2020, cohort-based online courses have been growing rapidly, and we must expect them to do even more in the future. A sense of community and collaborative learning makes cohort-based courses focus more on group-based interactive learning.
But what is cohort-based eLearning?
As opposed to self-paced courses that allow students to take lessons at their own convenience, cohort-based learning blends both learner-led and tutor-led learning, resulting in potentially higher engagement.
What is cohort-based online learning?
Cohort refers to a group of learners who have something in common, maybe common interests and preferences. In eLearning, it means a grade level or a class of learners. Cohort based online courses refer to a learning style where a group of learners or cohorts go through a learning program organized around a particular syllabus.
The syllabus of cohort-based online courses is often divided into sections, and all students are supposed to go through the curriculum at the same pace. A typical cohort course accommodates around 15-35 learners who learn with a hands-on learning approach.
Cohort based learning involves both synchronous and asynchronous learning where learners must keep up with the schedule set by tutors in addition to self-study. Cohort based learning is more common in traditional educational settings like schools and colleges. However, cohort-based online courses aim to implement such kind of learning in a virtual environment. Learners can build relationships with their peers in the cohort.
What makes Cohort-based courses different and advantageous
Online education has undergone a lot of transitions over the years, and today learning experiences have more significance than knowledge. Let’s look into why everyone must experience cohort-based courses. Here are takeaways of cohort-based online courses.
Accountability and personal connections
Cohort based learning presents opportunities for learners to connect with peers and establish healthy relationships with everyone in the cohort.
Community-based tutoring
The idea behind cohort-based learning is that it offers a closed group where learners can beat challenges together and celebrate the wins as a team.
Positive feedback and interaction
The concept of studying alone with self-paced courses has been changed to studying with peers of the same interests. Timely feedback is another advantage, and the teaching style ensures learners won’t be left stuck at any phase.
Learner transformation
When learning as a group, students feel confident to interact and collaborate with each other to excel in their learning to complete courses. The goal is to allow intuitive minds to discuss, interact, and master the course within the virtual classroom.
Best quality content
The content in cohort-based courses is curated to help learners brainstorm, engage in interactive sessions and active assessment sessions.
Best platforms to build cohort-based courses
Learning through hands-on experience is much more powerful than learning by watching. And that’s why cohort-based online courses are in high demand these days. Following are cohort-based learning platforms that will help creators build learner-centric courses that help learners to master the skills you teach:
Pinlearn
Pinlearn is the best choice to build a cohort course platform that will grow with you if you are looking for a cohort-based learning platform. Pinlearn is a powerful online tutoring software that comes with all the essential features you need to implement cohort-based learning, schedule live group sessions with learners, and more.
The software includes features to sell one-one live classes, sell courses, host group webinars, and features other capabilities like whiteboard, internal messaging system, secure payment gateways, and more.
Pinlearn is not only a turnkey solution, it can be customized to fit your unique business requirements. For a one-time payment (no recurring fees), you get access to 100% open source code.
Teachfloor
Teachfloor is an easy to use software to create and scale cohort-based online courses. The solution helps any online academy transform its asynchronous online courses into cohort-based courses. Teachfloor features curriculum builder, course landing pages, zoom integration, calendar scheduling, stripe integration, on-demand videos, email automation, and more.
With 3000+ clients and 24/7 support in over 50+ countries, Teachfloor is one of the seasoned platforms that course creators can leverage to create cohort-based online courses. The software is priced at $49 per month and comes with a 14-day free trial.
Graphy
Graphy is another all-in-one eLearning platform to set up your courses, grow your community and monetize your expertise without any barriers. Graphy doesn’t come with features for asynchronous learning. Instead, it features a communication tool similar to Zoom for live teaching.
Graphy allows you to host live classes and online courses and leverage innovative features like WHitebaord, Q n A’s, raise hands, and more. The best thing is that there is no subscription fee. The platform takes money when you make money.One of the major disadvantages is that the platform charges a 5% platform fee.
Maven
Maven is a cohort-based learning platform launched with the aim to revolutionize education with a more learner-centric approach. Creators who want to build cohort-based online courses must apply to their course accelerator. The best features of Maven are the time-bound online classes, a formal system to check the quality, self-paced classes where learners are given goals to fulfil, and more.
Teachable
Teachable is yet another tutoring platform that creators can leverage to grow and nurture an online audience. It comes with features to customize the look and feel of your online course, create a tutoring site that reflects your brand, create a sales page, and a lot more.
Creators can sell courses on their own or in a bundle and choose between different pricing plans like one-time fees or subscriptions. Teachable comes with the free plan and basic plan that includes a custom domain, drip course content, coupon codes, email marketing, etc.
Conclusion
Whether you are passionate about online teaching, want to grow your audience, or looking to make money from your courses, cohort-based courses can help you achieve that.
When picking a platform to build a platform to host cohort-based courses, consider your budget, unique requirements, earning potential etc. Once you have chosen a course topic and decided on the content, you can launch your own course platform.
The cohort-based learning platforms we have mentioned in this blog can help you create cohort online courses. The list has a mix of tutoring software to build your own platforms along with tutoring marketplaces that can help you host cohort-based courses.
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