Introducing Cohorts

At Ministry of Testing, we’re always experimenting with ways to deliver training so that you get the best learning experience. That’s why we’re pleased to announce that we are now offering a new cohort driven approach to training.

What is a cohort

In the context of online learning, a cohort is a group of people who learn together online for a fixed amount of time. During that time, you may do things like:

• Attend multiple instructor led classes lessons together

• Complete activities outside of classes together

• Share questions, feedback and support each others learning

This is all done using tools like video conferencing tools for classes and private online forum spaces to share ideas and discuss activities. Cohorts are great because:

• You’re not just learning from the instructor but from one another as you share experiences and ideas

• You are learning over a period of time, which gives you the opportunity to reflect on what you’ve learnt and experimented with new ideas

• You can manage when is the best time for you to learn and when you need to focus on other personal and professional commitments

Why cohorts

There are a few benefits to running online training compared to the more traditional approach of consecutive days of training.

Beat the ‘Zoom fatigue’

With remote working becoming the norm, a common concern we’re all experiencing is the fatigue attending so many video calls. It’s tiring being on video calls for extended amounts of time. We’ve experienced the same ourselves.

So with our new approach, we have created shorter sessions with a wider gap between them to not just learn more, but to help keep everyone refreshed and ready to learn when the next session begins.

Gives you time to think and practise

The great thing about training sessions is that there’s so much to learn. But one of the challenges with training is the balance between learning opportunities and time management, getting it right can be tricky. Yes, we could make the course longer to allow for time, but then we hit the original issue of ‘Zoom fatigue’ and nobody wants to drop learning opportunities because of time.

By breaking the training up into smaller sessions with time to carry out assigned activities in between sessions. You, the learner, have the opportunity to work on the assigned activities, experiment more with skills and concepts, reflect on what has been taught and finally ask us questions. All of this will help make what has been taught stick.

Diversity in learning can help increase engagement

Finally, by creating space between sessions we can diversify our teaching more. People learn at different paces and in different ways. So to be able to offer a combination of teaching approaches will mean we can teach and support you in ways that work for you. Resulting in a more engaging and fulfilling training experience.

Planned cohorts

Our first cohort has already been announced. Richard and Mark will be running their always popular Automation in Testing training as a cohort from 2nd March 2021 to 23rd March 2021. You can find all the details on what the course will cover and how to register a place on the events page.

We plan to announce new cohort training sessions in the future.

How to be notified

To be notified of all new upcoming cohort training events, just reply ‘Yes’ to our lovely bot on this page and we will inform you via email every time we launch a new cohort training.