What is a course cohort?
A course cohort is defined as a group of people who go through a learning journey at the same time. Course cohorts are run asynchronously but include planned synchronous sessions for group-related activities. Course cohorts usually follow aspects of social learning, where the group can interact with each other and learn from each other.
Considerations
- Attendee availability
- Attendee location/timezones
- Course material
- Asynchronous access to content
- Group leadership
- Attendee engagement
- Defining success
Timeframe
Given the open sourceOpen Source Open Source denotes software for which the original source code is made freely available and may be redistributed and modified. Open Source **must be** delivered via a licensing model, see GPL./self-paced learning environment of Learn WordPress, one cannot assume that attendees have large amounts of dedicated time to apply to a course cohort. The nature of a cohort is that it has to have a set start and end date. It is also not ideal to require attendees to commit to lengthy cohorts, as they might lose interest, thereby affecting completion rates.
For this reason, it’s recommended that a course cohort based on Learn WordPress content is not longer than 4 – 6 weeks.
When preparing the course content, try to determine a specific amount of hours required by attendees each week to review the course content, attend synchronous sessions, and complete course activities. Ideally, expect course attendees to spend an average of 2-3, but not more than 5, hours per week on these tasks and adjust the course content accordingly. Course activities should be practical but not too lengthy.
Teaching structure
It is recommended that existing Learning Pathway content be leveraged to run course cohorts.
Doing so makes it easier for the course cohort facilitators, as they do not need to create and manage the content for the cohort.
Course content
Try to use modules/lessons that are beginner-friendly, have enough content (but not too much) to fill up the estimated timeframe, and can be run by experienced team members.
Each week, there should be at least one asynchronous activity and at least one in-person session that participants are asked to complete. The asynchronous activities can include online whiteboard exercises, course content quizzes, and/or technical exercises that can be submitted. Ideally, where needed, these quizzes and exercises should be capable of “self-assessment.”
Alternatively, consider how it could make it possible for course attendees to assess each other’s exercises anonymously.
The in-person session can be held via Zoom or the facilitator’s choice of video conferencing platform, as we do with our Online Workshops. These sessions, however, should be for course cohort participants only.
Ideally, the course should also have one overarching task, in the form of a final project, that participants are encouraged to complete.
Attendee numbers
The number of attendees should be decided by the course facilitator. A cohort should accept 40 – 60 applicants. But you’ll probably just see 15-30 attend the in-person sessions, which is manageable.
Attendee selection
Given the asynchronous nature of our work and the fact that our learning community is spread across time zones, it is recommended that we approach attendee selection in a fair but randomized manner.
Once the course content has been determined, a public post on the Training Team blog will be published, announcing the fact that interested participants can sign up to be considered for the course cohort.
We can then work with the Marketing Team to have the course cohort post marketed across social media platforms and WordPress news platforms. Some popular platforms include:
- WordPress.org News – https://wordpress.org/news/
- WP Tavern – https://wptavern.com/
- WP Content – https://wpcontent.io/
The Marketing Team/Media Corps offers an option to amplify posts via social media.
This post should include a couple of validation questions to ensure possible attendees meet a small list of requirements:
- They have a WordPress.orgWordPress.org The community site where WordPress code is created and shared by the users. This is where you can download the source code for WordPress core, plugins and themes as well as the central location for community conversations and organization. https://wordpress.org/ profile
- They can dedicate the required time each week to completing the course content/activities.
- They should be able to attend at least one in-person session per week or be able to catch up with the session asynchronously.
The post should remain open for at least two weeks, after which time attendees will be chosen at random. This allows for a fair selection process. Any attendees who are not selected can be added to the waiting list for the next time this cohort is run and notified accordingly.
Cohort group leaders
It is recommended that in order to lead a course cohort, contributors should meet the following requirements:
- Completed the requirements to attain the Training Contributor badge
- Have a proven track record of hosting online workshops
- Ideally, have hosted at least 2-3 online workshops
The reason for these requirements is due to the fact that course leaders will need to be trusted to run the course in alignment with the WordPress community guidelines, as well as have an understanding of how to create and present learning content. They may also need to have access to private attendee data (e.g., email addresses) and should be trusted not to abuse this data access.
Course cohort updates
All course updates should happen via the Training Team blog. Below is a list of the possible blog posts that could be created to update the community on a specific course cohort:
- Course Announcement/attendee sign-up post
- Include details about what a course cohort is, what to expect, and how to sign up
- Include details of the specific cohort topic/course content
- Standard 2-week comment/sign-up period
- A final comment to indicate course sign-up is complete, and close comments
- Course commencement post
- Indicate that the course cohort has begun, with an estimated end date and projected outcomes.
- Course wrap-up post
- Include details of course progress, invite participants to send in their course feedback, and tease the next cohort.
Course cohort communication
In order to allow learners and facilitators to engage with each other asynchronously during the duration of the course cohort, we use the the #training-cohorts channel in the Make WordPress SlackSlack Slack is a Collaborative Group Chat Platform https://slack.com/. The WordPress community has its own Slack Channel at https://make.wordpress.org/chat/..
This channel can be used for async cohort discussions, problem-solving, and general check-ins.
Cohort check-ins
To improve cohort engagement, it’s recommended that one of the cohort facilitators share information and updates at key intervals during the cohort.
- At the start of the first week, welcome participants to the cohort and ask them to introduce themselves. Introduce the cohort facilitators.
- Weekly check-ins, either at the start of the week or the day before the async call, check in with participants to see how they are doing, if they need help, and to remind them of the weekly call time.
- At the end of the cohort, either after the last call or just before the last day of the cohort, thank folks for participating, ask them to complete the survey, and share their experiences on social media.
- Remind folks to take the feedback survey one week after the cohort wraps.
For some messaging ideas, see the examples taken from a previous cohort.
Measuring success
To measure the success of a course cohort, we can consider the first two levels of Kirkpatrick’s Four Levels of Training Evaluation.
- Results: The degree to which participants find the training favorable, engaging, and relevant
- How many participants complete the weekly activities?
- How many participants attend the in-person sessions?
- How many participants complete the course feedback survey?
- Learning: The degree to which participants acquire the intended knowledge, skills, attitude, confidence, and commitment based on their participation in the training
- How many participants complete the course?
- How many participants pass the quizzes/tasks/assignments during the course
Currently, we consider the cohort a success if we achieve the following metrics
- Results – at least 50% of participants complete the activities, attend the in-person sessions, and/or complete the feedback survey
- Learning – at least 50% of participants complete the course content.