CBCs 🤝 DAOs 🙌

How Cohort-Based Courses can help Decentralized Autonomous Organizations

This is essay 5 of 7 for The Tech Progressive Writing Challenge. Join the conversation in the  build_ Discord.

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Decentralized Autonomous Organizations (DAOs) should integrate cohort-based courses (CBCs) into their organization to build a stronger community and further their mission. (Read more about DAOs)

Why?

First, let’s take a step back and explain cohort-based courses.

Cohort-based courses rose in popularity shortly after the start of COVID. A cohort-based course is a highly interactive, group-based, online course to learn a specific skill.

Cohort-based courses can take many forms. From teaching crypto to leadership, CBCs can last from days to months.

Some features of CBCs: high-intensity, specific learning goals, learning by doing, live Zoom meetings coupled with asynchronous Slack or Discord discussion, and a strong focus on personal relationships.

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Cohort-based learning is nothing new. We learn best in groups, and cohort-based courses simply bring this online.

Grant 🌐 🏗 @grant_nissly

I’m confident cohort-based online learning is the future because the underlying concept is nothing new. Learning a skill or subject with a group of likeminded people is Lindy

In this post, I’ll explain why DAOs should incorporate cohort-based learning to advance their mission.

CBCs Build Strong Community

Cohort-based learning builds community. And, a strong community is fundamental to a DAO.

Some reasons why CBCs build community:

• It brings a group of people together through a shared struggle.

angelo_ @angelo_a_jr

It’s well-known that shared hardships build bonds between people (building startups, military training, etc.) and The Tech Progressive Writing Challenge (organized by @grant_nissly) was no exception in achieving this with brilliant 🧠 from around the world medium.com/@angeloalessio…

medium.comThe Clash of Concepts that Inspired a CommunityThis is essay #7 of 7 as part of The Tech Progressive Writing Challenge. Join the discussion with build_ in the Discord. Having just recently launched this grand web3 experiment called build_, our…

• The “mission” (or learning goal) of the cohort attracts people that are already aligned. (This is similar to a DAO as everyone who joins the DAO has a vested interest in the mission.)

• Cohort-based courses add additional structure to a community which helps strengthen relationships. With a clear structure, participants have an environment to collaborate, learn, and build.

• The cohort or group nature builds a strong community. A group of people meeting and interacting consistently on a shared mission and shared timeline creates bonds. We’ve all been there - from sports teams to a freshman class to a work team.

Why should DAOs embrace cohort-based learning?

• A strong community is fundamental to a strong DAO. CBCs can help strengthen the DAO’s community.

• The structure and accountability of a CBC helps to bring some order to occasionally chaotic Discords that DAOs typically operate in.

• As CBC are action-focused, the CBCs actions can be aligned with specific goals of the DAO.

• CBCs can teach valuable skills to Members of the DAO.

• Since Members of DAOs are already mission aligned when joining, the cohort-based course can address specific wants and needs of Members of the DAO. For example, I’ve run several writing cohorts. As writing is a widely-applicable skill that people want to learn, implementing writing cohorts within DAOs helps to strengthen community and teach valuable skills to Members of the DAO.

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In conclusion, integrating cohort-based courses within DAOs has potential to strengthen the community of the DAO and further the mission of the DAO.