Rihanna Considers the Cohort Program a Time Saver

 

Rhianna is a healthcare professor and also holds an administrative position at a four-year research-based institution. She teaches cohort courses at the doctoral level, both online and face-to-face. Her online course is offered every other year to meet the cohort requirement. Enrollment ranges from 15 to 33 participants. As a full professor with an administrative role, Rhianna is also involved in service activities and does a fair amount of traveling. Her online course for the cohort-based program is process-based. She uses design, support, teaching, and time allocation strategies to help balance her workload.

 

Design	Uses a consistent design framework for all courses. Lays out the content, based on modules, and breaks information into topic areas. Develops PowerPoint files with voiceovers. Creates questions for the discussion forums. Identifies appropriate assignments that capture the content. Determines the course pace. Refines the course as she progresses with her teaching. Gives access to the online course material to students prior to the beginning of the semester. Communicates to learners that the entire online course is available ahead of time.
Support	Has support staff to assist in uploading materials (PowerPoint files and voiceovers) to the learning management system. Reuses materials from semester to semester saving her time for other academic responsibilities.
Teaching	With the cohort-based program, student orientation is provided at the beginning of the program when learners get to know each other. Divides learners into groups of five or six participants. Each participant posts comments individually and interacts with others and the instructor in the discussion forum. During the discussions, she avoids answering immediately; rather she reflects on her response and waits to post it until the next day. Uses cooperative strategies in which learners work in groups, but develop individual research questions, participate in discussions to learn from each other, and determine how they will implement their individual study.
Time-Allocation	Allocates a considerable amount of time for her online course during the initial design phase. Blocks out times in her calendar for her work on the course during the semester. Her time commitment becomes lighter as the cohort group begins to take on more responsibilities. When there are more learners enrolled in her online course, there will be more time intensity on her part. Spends 8-10 hours per week checking her course daily, sometimes in the evening, but mostly in the morning. Adjustd her schedule to meet her course participants’ needs.

 

Teaching online in a cohort program is a design approach that can be a time saver. Instructors can follow a standard design established by the program and yet can shape their online courses based on their personality. Cohort learners tend to get to know each other as a learning community from the beginning of the program through a general orientation. This prevents having to create an orientation for each online course and facilitates relationship and trust-building early on. Because learners are part of a cohort, the instructor can better predict learner behavior and anticipate course activities. For online instructors, this means having a better sense of time allocation.

 

Reference

 

Conceição, S. C. O, Lehman, R. M. (2011). Managing Online Instructor Workload: Strategies for Finding Balance and Success. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.