What is a Cohort Degree Program?

The birth of the cohort program came as educators and psychologists began to better understand how people learn. One of the key factors in learning is the impact of community — the people we learn with and from. Based on the importance of community in education, the cohort program came into being. It is a simple model to improve the educational experience and learning environment for a group of students.

Colorado Christian University utilizes the cohort program model through it’s programs offered 100% online for the busy adult learner ensuring you are supported from your first conversation all the way through commencement.

Cohort Program Basics

To understand a cohort program, it’s important to answer, “What is a cohort?” The dictionary definition of cohort is “a group of people banded together or treated as a group.” That is a perfect way to define the “cohort program” in its educational context. A cohort program is “a group of people banded together or treated as a group” in a degree program or course of study. A simple way to view a cohort program is as a group of classmates.

The cohort model is particularly effective for graduate degree programs, where students focus more on a specific field. By progressing through the program with the same group of students, cohort members can develop authentic professional relationships and networks that will serve them throughout their careers. The shared experience of working through challenging coursework creates a strong bond among the cohort, fostering a supportive learning environment.

This supportive environment is especially valuable for students returning to school after a long absence or juggling multiple responsibilities such as work and family. The cohort structure provides a built-in support system, with students encouraging and motivating each other to persist through graduate study challenges. Faculty members also benefit from teaching cohort-based courses, as they can tailor their instruction to the specific needs and interests of the group.

Cohort Program Benefits

Cohort programs have a wide array of benefits. After all, cohort programs were developed in response to some basic facts about human nature and learning, i.e. people learn better in groups. Thus, the underlying benefit of a cohort program is that people learn better as they study as part of a group — a cohort.

Cohort programs provide an active, interactive, and dynamic setting for students to grow their knowledge and skills. Rather than the professor-teaching-student model of traditional learning, cohort programs bring students together to build community, foster creativity, build leadership skills, and encourage greater progress.

While traditional degree programs often allow students to take self-paced courses, cohort-based courses keep students on track by moving through the curriculum at a structured pace. This helps to ensure that all students in the cohort graduate on time. A cohort program's fixed schedule can also make it easier for students to plan their lives around their studies, as they know well in advance when classes will be held and when key assignments will be due.

Cohort Model Progress

The typical university offers hundreds or thousands of different classes attended by hundreds or thousands of different students. Those students are pursuing different degree programs or emphases at different times for different reasons. It gets complicated, and it’s absurd to think that any two students would follow the same schedule of classes — attending every single class at the same time and place as another for the duration of their degree program.

However, the cohort model argues that the togetherness model is a more beneficial form of learning. As students study together, they develop relationships — a form of learning that transcends course material and becomes life-skill training. In this way, cohort programs more accurately train students in on-the-job skills. With online education becoming more common, the cohort program model is becoming the ideal mode of delivery.

Another advantage of the cohort model is the opportunity for collaborative learning. By working closely with the same group of students throughout the program, cohort members can learn from each other's diverse perspectives and experiences. Group projects and discussions become more meaningful when students have established rapport and trust with their classmates. This collaborative approach mirrors the teamwork essential for success in many professional fields, giving students valuable experience in working effectively with others.

Cohort programs offer valuable networking opportunities in addition to academic benefits. As students progress through the program, they form lasting connections with their classmates, who may become future colleagues, business partners, or clients. The diversity of backgrounds and experiences within a cohort can also enrich the learning experience, exposing students to new ideas and perspectives they may not have encountered otherwise.