What is the advantage of a cohort learning situation to the online learner?
Cohort study in an online environment, it seems, allows the student to view his or her classmate more like a person and less like a shadow on the screen. In its essence, the cohort program emphasizes collaboration and community building. In this collective environment, students learn from one another, and brainstorm together by way of writing their life experiences and offering them to the group. I would imagine that in this situation a sense of trust is built among it's members. At the Masters Degree level it allows students to reflect and build upon their ideas for research study around the experience of others, thereby, simulating a traditional college environment. So students may not learn about one another in the traditional sense of face to face interaction with the ability to read verbal and nonverbal cues, but by way of writing, reading, and listening, of which all are necessary for good communication and for learning to occur.
