In a cohort and community based course (CCBC), a lot of the learning happens online. But not in a self-paced-watch-some-videos-and-then-write-a-test kind of way.

In many ways, a great CCBC is a real evolution of what most of us know to be possible in online learning experiences. Although the concept of cohorts definitely isn’t new in learning, a proper and truly leading-edge CCBC is something that few educators or institutions can offer yet at the level that’s possible with today’s best technologies and pedagogical approaches.

As the name implies, learning happens as part of a cohort or group. Its members go through an engaging and compelling journey together, facilitated by one or more experts.

And, importantly, they don’t just learn about stuff. They learn by doing stuff. Learners come out of the experienced having built and performed a set of demonstrable competencies. And having had an impact.

As Wes Kao shares (see below), CCBCs are often delivered live and they’ll usually have fixed start and end dates to emphasize the doing aspect. To participate, you need to be present and engaged, and you need to commit to accomplishing real goals in real time.

As outlined by Forte (also see below), cohort-based courses are set apart by their:

• Being part of a community
• Being held accountable
• Deep interaction
• Significant impact

To get you started, here are a few CCBCs from different disciplines:

• The cohort-based courses found on Maven.com
• Forte Labs’s Building a Second Brain
• Seth Godin’s AltMBA
• Christina Tosi Teaches Creative Baking and Creative Engineering with Mark Rober, both found on monthly.com

And here’s a little more reading on the topic:

• In Online Ed, Content Is No Longer King—Cohorts Are [Maven’s Wes Kao on a16z (Andreessen Horowitz venture capital firm)]
• The Future of Education is Community: The Rise of Cohort-Based Courses [Tiago Forte of Forte Labs]
• Cohort vs. Self-Paced Learning [Wharton Online]

Good question, and we’re still working it out as we design the program. It’s why we’re getting in front of people like you to test our assumptions and learn what’s needed.

For now though, we can share the following challenge that we’ve set for ourselves:

To build an online version of the kind of experience we were able to accomplish through the Spark School for Innovation by Design:

but with with a deeply immersive and impactful experience and the option for truly global online reach – both enabled by the best technologies and approaches available today for engaging a community of leaders.