Cohort-Based Learning Communities are the Future
The best way to grow is to build and learn with others.
For many years, I tried enrolling in pre-recorded courses where I get to study at my own pace, but they just never worked for me. I learned best by exchanging ideas with others and previous online courses are not structured to put focus on this. Luckily, cohort-based programs started to emerge. I fell in love with this approach because it allowed me to learn through fellow students.
The Criteria
There are several key elements needed to make a successful cohort-based learning program. Personally, these are the four factors that I found to be helpful in evaluating these programs:
1) Content - The core materials included in the main sessions, including relevant links to other resources, videos, or websites that are shared throughout the program.
2) Structure - This includes the curriculum outline, the platform being used, and communication channels where students can interact with instructors, staff, and other members.
3) Community - Cohort-based learning is not just about the instructors, it’s also about the community members’ participation. The willingness to help, share ideas, and enthusiasm in the program all play a big role in making the course effective.
4) Style - This includes the approach to teaching. It can range from academic to practical, rigid to free-flowing, formal to a casual approach. This is harder to measure and may overlap with the other elements. I view this as the vibe of the program.
Courses and Fellowships
I’m a serial lifelong learner and fellowship power-user. Over the past recent years, I have taken the following cohort-based courses, fellowships, and programs. I’m including all of these here even though some of them are more of a community because the objectives are very similar - self-improvement and learning.
Reforge Programs
I took two Reforge programs: 1) Retention & Engagement, 2) Product Strategy. Reforge probably has the most in-depth materials around Product Management & Growth that I’ve ever come across. It’s prepared by well-known leaders in the field and you can see how much effort they have put in thinking about the frameworks, tools, and examples. The exercises are also well-designed and I found myself putting a lot of effort trying to understand the concept and how these can be applied in real situations. The support coming from the staff and the engagement from the students are very high which makes the whole learning experience fun and interactive.
Improvements that they could do is to put more focus on student interactions and add variations in terms of style of learning, instead of just focusing purely on lectures. For example, I didn’t really get the chance to meet my fellow students because we are all very focused on completing the lectures and individual exercises.
I took the matter into my own hands and formed a group of five. I set up a weekly discussion with them which made the learning experience better. Reforge has opened their Slack community recently and that allowed for better interaction among students, but they still rely heavily on the instructors being the source of information as opposed to having everyone contributing equally to the community.
Section 4 - Strategy Sprint - Scott Galloway
I took this course because of Prof G, and it’s clear that the whole course relies on his brand. What I liked about this course is the way they dissect different companies and explained really well how some companies succeed and some failed. The course is divided into four modules combining motivations, integrations, and bundling strategies of different companies. The storytelling and course content is engaging because of Prof G.
Similar to Reforge, this program could improve how the students interact with each other. Because this is async discussions for the most part with only 1-2 live sessions with Prof G, it’s very hard to keep up with the pace and I found myself not connecting deeply with the rest of the cohort. There’s also a lack of knowledge exchange and exercises that will allow me to retain what I learned better. Finally, the class size is too big and too diverse that it was very hard to connect with people who share the same background.
OnDeck - First 50, Performative Speaking, Writer Fellowship
On Deck fellowships have different vibes, depending on the program. Unlike Reforge and Prof G’s class, OnDeck doesn’t have the same kind of content that you may find in online courses. Instead, it relies on the wisdom of its community members, and content is built through speaker sessions, group exercises, and examples built over time. I expect that the content library will be built over time but the approach leans heavily on the participation of the fellows.
The best part about On Deck is their guiding values which created a very memorable learning experience. The act of service allows for a very helpful community that goes out of its way to help others. On Deck encouraged me to be more vulnerable. This meant that I wasn’t afraid to ask questions and share my challenges. Because of this, others were able to give specific advice.
The improvement depends on the program. For example, the First 50 fellows are hyperactive because most of the fellows are looking for a job and excited to meet companies and other fellows. This became overwhelming at the beginning. On the other hand, the Performative Speaking fellows appear to be busier with their work and not everyone is able to give feedback to other people’s homework.
Nonetheless, On Deck has exceeded my expectations in terms of how well they run the course, the support from the staff and community, and the engagement of its fellows.
Community College - Greg Isenberg
I just finished this course. I really enjoyed this course because leading community-led initiatives are part of my scope in my startup and I plan to continue shifting my focus towards this. Similar to On Deck, what I liked about the course is the interaction between Greg, the students, and the staff. We are all bullish on community growth and I discovered new resources and techniques in building and growing communities. Greg brings an incredible amount of experience in the space which made the content and discussions very engaging.
In the future, I think it would be great if there’s a way for me to share my own challenges with peers and get their feedback so that we can apply what we learned to our own situations. Having been heavily involved in growing our communities from a few thousand to 100k members, I was also looking for a little more depth in some areas where I am struggling with the most. There’s no built-in mechanism to have that discussion so having some exercises or formal group assignments will allow us to have space where we can tackle our problems head-on.
Ship 30 for 30 - Dickie Bush & Nicolas Cole
I will consider this a cohort-based ‘program’ more than a course because there’s very little lecture involved here and it’s all about execution and learning by doing. What I liked about this program is it’s all about results. In just a week, I managed to deliver results faster than the other programs, because it’s designed to get you to build in public.
While this is the most execution-oriented program, this is also the least structured one. In the future, it would be great to have more guardrails in the way they run the Slack community, content, and provide a structured way on how to approach various ways to improve and grow your audience.