Cohort-based learning platforms: A go or a no?
Cohort-based learning platforms have been popular with course creators due to the rise of cohort-based courses. Many Ed-tech founders start to build SaaS for course creators plus a marketplace to showcase their creators’ works.
But as a course creator, should you really need to use these platforms?
Or is it better to create your D-I-Y landing page and get your own domain?
Here are action steps to help you decide:
I. Identify your level
Professionals who have turned into course creators started with different resources and levels. Some built their audience, some are just starting out. Others have facilitation skills, others just started learning. Identifying your level will help you decide if you should start with a platform or not.
- Level 0 — You are a professional with 2–5 years of experience in your industry, curious about transforming your knowledge into a course even without a teaching background and with no audience.
- Level 1 — You are a professional either with a teaching background or have built a small to a medium-size audience. You want to create a course as a side hustle.
- Level 2 — You are a professional who created self-paced courses, facilitated workshops, designed a curriculum, etc. And you have built a small to a medium-size audience.
- Level 3 — You are a professional who has built a medium to a large-size audience, has been writing content and creating courses for some time. And you want to transform this content into a cohort-based format.
If you find yourself in Level 0 to Level 1, using cohort-based learning platforms can be a great start to creating your courses.
Here’s why:
- Using these platforms can test your idea fast and easily. In most cases, these platforms have their communities. You can gain so much in connecting with people ahead or at the same level as you.
- Testing can lessen the risk of failure. Some of these platforms offer workshops for aspiring course creators and an all-in-one toolkit where you can build your course. Building and learning with others sounds fun too!
- Save your time, budget, and effort by joining these platforms. Starting with less is more.
- Free marketing and networking since you’re just starting out.
If you find yourself in Level 2 to Level 3, you can either use these platforms or create your own OR just do both. It is always better to have your own website.
Here’s why:
- You can self-promote your courses. It’s easy to direct them with all the details of the course on your own website. There is no to little need to collaborate with a company in order to promote your course.
- Successful launch and sustaining your course is high. It is better to build your own website and create your own branding that you can grow over time into a business or a micro-school.
- Although joining a platform can give you advantages such as connecting with people who are already in the space, you can collaborate in other ways or just join their communities to network, OR just use their toolkit to create your course.
II. Identify your industry
Now that you have identified where you stand in terms of audience, skills, and knowledge in course creation, it is also important to identify your topic-related industry. Why?
Cohort-based platforms have their own niche. And identifying your industry will guide you choose the right platform and community for your course.
III. Identify the existing platforms
Here are some of the cohort-based platforms on the web. Look for the one that fits you best, don’t just go to the popular ones.
- Maven — a top-rated platform where celebrities in their own niche are launching their cohort-based courses. They offer an accelerated program for course creators.
- Airtribe — a platform based in India. They just launched the LaunchPad, Airtribe’s 3 weeks accelerated program for course creators.
- Jiruto — a platform for tech-related niches. They offer an all-in-one toolkit, app integrations, plus a marketplace for instructors.
- TeachFloor — no need for Zoom and LMS. This is the equivalent of Teachable for cohort-based courses.
- Clustered App — for general course creators who like it small but scalable.
- SkillShare Chroma Courses — for creative and artistic course creators.
- Superpeer — Forget about Zoom, Slack, Google Suite, and Calendar. It’s all in Superpeer!
And…
Here are samples of popular courses that have their own landing pages:
More like this at cohortland.com
