The key to kicking off a successful cohort community

By Chelsea Wilson

Instructor Support

Summary

Learn how to help your students start your cohort with high energy and meaningful engagement by using Maven's customizable introduction template.

With a relatively short course, it's important for you to facilitate connections as quickly as possible. This is where students get a lot of value from cohort-based experiences.

When you welcome students into your course, start by getting them to introduce themselves with a brief template.

You can customize the introduction template so makes sense for your course.

Go to your 👋intros channel.
Navigate to the ⚙️ settings icon in the top right corner.
Create an introduction prompt that all of your students will see when they go to the 👋intros channel. Remember to save changes.

Everyone is an expert in themselves so getting them to give a brief introduction is an easy way to get them engaging in the community early. Students who post an introduction are more likely to contribute comments and reactions later in the course.

Consider 3-5 prompts for an introduction. And remember, their name will be associated to the post so you don't need them to write their name.

Some suggested prompts for your students:

Location / where are you?
Favorite vacation spot
Why you enrolled in the course
What you're most looking forward to
Fun fact
Best ways to connect / social handles
What skills you can offer
What skills you're looking to learn
Favorite song / book / author / thinker / artist / creator etc.
What you're watching / listening to

Pro tip: in your orientation email, give instructions for students to not only add their own introduction, but to comment in 3 other people's intro and say hi. It's a nice way to create a read-and-write dynamic in the community.