With most students attending college through Zoom, Pierce College should come up with a strategy to help students move through their college experience online easier.
Counselors can create groups for students with similar interests, majors and goals to help keep each other accountable in moving toward their goals.
According to Wharton Online, from the University of Pennsylvania, the benefits of cohorts include collaboration, support, structure, perspective and networking.
These students could meet online during a set time and day in the week with a counselor directing them through which classes to take.
This also allows students to engage with each other, broadening the perspective for everyone in that area.
Currently, elementary schools are planning to reopen with this method of engagement.
From the County of Los Angeles Public Health’s reopening schools protocol, Public Health states, “Revised maximum size of small, stable cohorts to 14 students and two supervising adults.”
Although these new guidelines are for maintaining social distancing practices in the classroom, many studies have shown small group learning is better for student engagement.
“This model enhances the success of adult learners due to a consistent structure that offers a stable and supportive group,”according to educators from the University of Mary Hardin-Baylor.
Coordinating cohort groups for Pierce students will assist students through their journey at Pierce.