Community College Online Class Size Optimization: Current Research and Findings #ALN12

Today I (@professorjosh) presented a session with my colleague Dr. Lisa Macon (@lisamacon) on Community College Online Class Size Optimization: Current Research and Findings at Sloan Consortium International Conference on Online Learning.

With the increasing demands for online classes as well as cost-cutting measures, many institutions look at raising online course caps. How might this impact learning?

In our community college, there is an increasing demand not only for online courses, but for online programs. At the same time that we are struggling with quality assurance of our online educational experiences, we battle with state funding limitations. Put these two factors together and the natural questions emerge: Could focusing efforts on offering larger online classes solve our problems? How might larger online classes impact learning? We will present preliminary findings based on existing research, interviews with staff at peer colleges, surveys of division deans, and both formal and informal discussions with online faculty and staff. Data will be drawn from multiple resources including the Instructional Technology Council, blogs about online course sizes, current literature, and social networking sites. Session Goals: After the session, each participant will be able to 1. Identify important factors that should be considered when choosing caps for online courses. 2. Locate and utilize resources to further the study of online class size optimization.