This article describes the people involved in a cohort learning course experience and the roles they play in creating a successful learning experience.
What is a cohort member?
One of the main distinctions between cohort learning and other forms of learning is that cohort learning brings together a specific group of people for a specific period of time to share a learning journey. In other words, you do not take a course or program alone, you share the experience with other learners. Together, you make up a cohort and each of you is a member of that cohort. In your learning journey, you will engage in discussions in the platform, likely come together virtually in a live event capstone, and possibly meet as part of a breakout group depending on the course.

What is a Moderator?
Each cohort is guided through the course by a Moderator. Moderators engage learners throughout their learning experience, deepening their learning by facilitating discussion activities to prompt collaboration, communicating key course details, helping nudge learners who may fall behind, and hosting any live events for the cohort.
Moderators are leadership development professionals who have experience guiding corporate groups through dialogue and discovery. They have been trained on the platform and method and are certified by our company in platform moderation and discussion facilitation.
The Moderator can be found on the right side of the course home page under the label Moderator. You will be able to message the moderator using the envelope icon next to the Moderator label.

What is a course Sponsor?
Sponsors of a course are leaders, sometimes senior leaders, that champion the initiative a course is part of. Sponsors take on varying levels of involvement in each course or program, sometimes engaging in discussions in a course, attending and speaking at live events, or providing a welcome video at the beginning of a learning journey. Courses and programs can contain a varying number of Sponsors, the Sponsors can come from varying levels in the organization, and can have varying levels of involvement in the course or program.
Sponsors are not cohort members because they are not taking the course as a learner. They may join in the discussions in the platform and view some of the course content, but they are not considered a cohort member in the platform.
The Sponsor(s) can be found on the right side of the course home page, often under the label Sponsor or Executive Sponsor. However, some organizations prefer other terms, such as Champion, and others choose to have multiple categories of Sponsors.

What is a course admin?
A course admin is someone designated by your organization’s learning leader (i.e. the person who organizes the learning journey for the cohort) to have access to the cohort taking a course. Depending on an admin’s role and level of permissions, they can view the course pages, analytics from the course, and discussions.
Each cohort has a varying number of admins and often include the organization learning leader, the Sponsor(s), the Moderator, and other project leaders involved in managing the course or program experience.
Admins are not cohort members because they are not taking the course as a learner. They may join in the discussions in the platform and view some of the course content, but they are not considered a cohort member in the platform.
What is a course Faculty?
When courses have live event capstones, a Faculty may be in attendance as a deep subject matter expert to synthesize learnings from the week and further explore application ideas. On live events, the Faculty directly engages learners and executives in conversation, encouraging deeper thinking and application in their specific organization by bringing in new stories, best practices and appropriate application ideas.
Faculty members are credentialed with an advanced degree in the course topic and are credible in leadership, management, and executive education. Often, Faculty members practice as a consultant and teach as Adjunct Faculty, Assistant Professor, or Professor at a reputable institution.