2026-01-29 From Cohort to Learning Community: What Sustains Learning Over Time
Files
Description
How do people learn together over time—particularly in professional and organizational contexts where progress is expected, but learning is relational, uneven, and often difficult to see?
This faculty research talk examines how cohorts—lock-step classes, groups, and teams—become learning communities and how learning is sustained alongside performance over time. Drawing on longitudinal, practice-based research across organizational, educational, and professional settings, the session explores patterns that reveal the conditions under which learning is supported, reduced, or disrupted.
Using the DODC program as a current case within a broader research agenda, the talk reflects on what becomes visible when professional and doctoral education are understood not only through measurable results, but through learning processes, relationships, and applied outcomes that extend beyond formal programs.
Carol Gorelick, EdD, is a faculty member in the Doctorate in Organization Development & Change (D.ODC) program at Bowling Green State University. Her research focuses on learning communities and organizational learning among professionals, grounded in longitudinal, practice-based ethnographic inquiry. Her work began with early research on virtual project teams, collaborative technology, and organizational learning and has extended across professional training, MBA and Executive MBA programs, and doctoral education. She studies the conditions that support sustained learning and applied outcomes over time.
Publication Date
1-29-2026
Recommended Citation
Gorelick, Carol, "2026-01-29 From Cohort to Learning Community: What Sustains Learning Over Time" (2026). DODC Symposia. 27.
https://scholarworks.bgsu.edu/dodc_symposiums/27