Cohort based course at core

Cohort-based courses have become a very common learning program during Pandamic times. They are often used in conventional education, from elementary school through college or university: a group of students attends a class or course together and works through the curriculum together over a set period of time.

In a very general definition, it can be called as

A cohort-based course is a learning program that follows a syllabus (typically in parts) and is taken by a group of students (a cohort) at the same time. Cohort-based courses can be delivered online, in a virtual environment, or in a real classroom.

Difference between Cohort-based course (CBC) & Self paced course (SPC)

Cohort-based course (CBC)

The time-bound aspect of a cohort-based course, as well as the fact that students master the subject together, distinguishes it from a self-paced course in which students can consume the course material alone and participation in a course community is optional.

Because a cohort of students begins and ends the course at the same time, they all progress through the classes at the same rate. As a consequence, a cohort delivers a more participatory, immersive experience for students, with course participants discussing their own comprehension and application of course material with one another as they go. A cohort increases the probability that students will complete a course and apply the learning successfully.

Self paced course (SPC)

In contrast, a self-paced course allows students to begin, pause, and complete the content on their own time and schedule. They might be on lesson one while another student is halfway through the curriculum. In a cohort-based course, this does not occur.

While self-paced courses are more accessible to anyone regardless of region, they also have a lower completion rate by students and a lower likelihood that a course participant would effectively ingest and apply the content.

A cohort-based course variant provides the option for self-paced learning, anticipating that some students in the same cohort will need to skip a lecture or a discussion here and there. A entirely self-paced course, on the other hand, is not, by definition, a cohort-based course.

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