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Abstract
In a closed-cohort educational program design, students enter a program together, take the same courses together, and, ideally, graduate together. In an effort to increase interaction and communication among students, it has been utilized more and more for online graduate programs. This article surveyed students in one of the few closed-cohort graduate programs in a mass communication school. Results indicate that students found several aspects of closed-cohort important, valued social media sites as a way to communicate with other cohort members, felt a strong sense of community among their cohort, and used their cohort to create a professional network of peers.
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Author Biographies
Justin C. Blankenship is a doctoral candidate at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill’s School of Media and Journalism. His research interests are in the changing nature of news production and pedagogical innovation in journalism instruction.
Rhonda Gibson is an associate professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill’s School of Media and Journalism. Her research interests include the effects of exemplification in journalism on issue perception, the effects of images of sexual minorities in the media, and communication pedagogy.
