The TLT Group

 
 Dealing Honestly and Effectively with Class Size in Online and Hybrid/Blended Courses
Dangerous Discussions Initiative, Clothing the Emperor Series

Steve Gilbert talks with Cynthia Russell, from University Tennessee Health Science Center, and John Sener, from Sener Learning Services
February 8, 2006  1-2 pm EST;   April 6, 13, 20, 2006 3-4:30 pm EST

• Resources

• Online Institute Home Page

• Faculty/Professional Development

• Dangerous Discussions 

• Clothing the Emperor

• Search Site

Framework for a Civil, Constructive Conversations

I.  Anti-inflammatory Description  II.  Polarizing Views or Questions  III.  Worthwhile Results
IV.  Evidence and Priorities  V.  What do YOU care about most? 

I.  Anti-inflammatory Description
Describe the issues in the least inflammatory language.  Identify important pre-requisites, conditions, stakeholders. 

1.  Class size is a key component of many important things in education -- course design, delivery cost, learning effectiveness, faculty and student satisfaction, among others.

2.  Dealing honestly and effectively with class size means being able to reflect on one’s assumptions about appropriate class size, consider alternatives based on the affordances that online and hybrid courses offer, and being willing to implement alternatives as appropriate.

Why bother? 
Why is it important to deal with this issue?
Because polemic views often drive the implementation of online/hybrid classes, especially in terms of class size. As there are increasing discussions of the relevance of a business model for higher education, this issue assumes more importance.

Under what conditions is it important to deal with this issue? 

Under what conditions should this issue be avoided? 

Under what conditions are the benefits associated with this issue likely to result?  Are there any important pre-requisites that must be in place?

Under what conditions are the risks associated with this issue too likely to occur - so that this issue should not be pursued or implemented?
Risky without intensive planning of class activities and flow. Can’t be hastily done.

Who cares?   (Who should be involved in considering this issue? 
Because they will be influenced by it? 
Because they are able to influence how it proceeds?  Other?)

·         Administrators

·         Faculty

·         Staff – instructional designers, IT support staff, other staff

·         Students

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II.  Polarizing Views or Questions 
Restate extreme positions and provocative questions in ways most likely to enable stakeholders who are initially committed to apparently opposing views to engage in civil, constructive discussion.

How can technology be used to increase class size and reduce operating costs?

Why can't a faculty member teach as many students in an online course as in the same course face-to-face?

Set #1:

1. Class size for online and hybrid courses really shouldn’t be more than 20-25 students – any more is too large.

2.  Online courses can be much larger than traditional classroom courses because the instructor doesn’t have to be physically present – economies of scale.

Restatement:

Optimal class size is a function of various factors including course design, desired outcomes, and delivery costs.

Set #2:

1. Large volume online/hybrid courses deliver individualized training more than education and will lead to graduates who are unprepared for socialization and interpersonal interactions required to be successful.

2. Large volume online/hybrid courses do not preclude opportunities for socialization and interpersonal interactions any more than low volume courses promote it.

Restatement:

The individualization of education and conveying educational material of worth in a variety of contexts is one marker of educational quality and is influenced by more than class size.

Set #3:

1. Large online/hybrid class sizes are fine for most undergraduate content, but they are not acceptable at the graduate level.

2. Large online/hybrid class sizes work well for graduate students because of their knowledge of the subject matter and their ability to work with others in collaborative ways.

Restatement:

Undergraduate as well as graduate students must be supported in learning how to learn in online/hybrid courses of any size.

ADDITIONAL:

1. How can learning be improved in online and hybrid/blended courses without reducing student/faculty ratio or increasing the workload for teachers or students?  
   Under what conditions?

2. In which courses and in which ways can information technology be used more effectively to increase the size of classes and reduce the number/duration of face-to-face meetings without reducing the quality of teaching and learning?  
   Without further overburdening faculty and academic support staff?  
   Without major external funding?  Without speculative restructuring?
   Without seeing the emperor's clothes!

3. How, if at all, can technology be used to reduce operating costs without sacrificing educational quality or the life expectancy of faculty?

4. How can large enrollment online classes be managed more effectively (e.g., 30-50 students in a doctoral level course)

5. “I usually meet face-to-face with 10-20 students in the courses I teach at this college, and I really enjoy the lively – and often thoughtful - discussions. I know I’m lucky. I put my course syllabi on the Web, and often assign Web-based resources to my students. Are there really any ways of adding online interaction that would be any improvement?”

6. How can we match conditions, goals, resources, and techniques for effective online teaching and learning with different sized classes?

GAINS:   

RISKS:   

GUIDELINES:   

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1.  More effective use of online instructional options
More faculty members teach effectively in larger online and hybrid/blended courses without drowning themselves or their students in unnecessary work.

2.  Identification of current operating assumptions which frame notions about appropriate class sizes.

3.  Reflection on these assumptions to determine their strengths and weaknesses.

4.  Identification of alternative course design approaches which utilize various class sizes as needed.

5.  Willingness to implement alternate course designs which utilize various class sizes as needed.

6.  More realistic policies about maximum student/faculty ratios in online and hybrid/blended courses
The college or university develops and implements new guidelines or polices acceptable to faculty governance or union representatives about student/faculty ratios.

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IV.  Evidence and Priorities
Identify the kinds of evidence that can be made accessible and useful to participants.  What other factors matter?  E.g., what priorities might modify the influence of evidence on important decisions about this issue?

1.  Campus climate factors influencing acceptance of evidence include:

• Level of suspicion – some on the part of faculty who think that larger class sizes are intended to replace them as instructors … “if I design the course so well then I’ll become irrelevant”
• Acceptance of instructional technology and other "new" teaching tools – not merely acceptance but knowledge of options, of what’s best given specific objectives, and how to use the technologies

Examples of Sener/Russell's  ‘big idea’ of applying alternative design models... to be expanded:

1.  The notion of a course incorporating multiple delivery modes options simultaneously – e.g., more instances of the Ohio State University ‘buffet approach’ to teaching intro statistics

2.  The Institute for Health Care Improvement (IHI) collaborative learning model, which utilizes large ‘class sizes’ and has recently eliminated its in-person sessions, greatly reducing costs in the process.

Generic Questions

1.  What evidence is already available and likely to help make relevant decisions?

2.  What kinds of additional evidence would be likely to help make relevant decisions?

3.  Why are people unlikely to be influenced by apparently relevant evidence?  What other factors are likely to influence relevant decisions? Personal experience influences faculty. Many faculty have seen, or heard the stories, of poor outcomes and experiences within large lecture hall courses and they become fearful that increasing online/hybrid class size will replicate that situation. Another factor that is likely to influence decisions is the existence and degree of IT support on campus for varied teaching/learning modalities.

4.  What priorities (institutional, personal, ...) might make some kinds of evidence irrelevant?  might influence the impact of evidence?

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V.  What do YOU care about most?  Personally, professionally, ...?[See also "Fundamental Questions"]

1. What do you most want to gain? [Regain?]
What do you care about?
For your students? colleagues? institution? yourself?
Whom do you care about?

2. What do you most cherish and want not to lose?

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February 8 – 1-2 pm EST    
Dealing Honestly and Effectively with Class Size
in Online and Hybrid/Blended Courses

Steve Gilbert talks with Cynthia Russell, from University Tennessee Health Science Center, and
John Sener, from Sener Learning Services
 

Other References, Resources

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If you have any questions or comments about this workshop, please contact Lisa Star at online@tltgroup.org

Please send your questions or suggestions for improving our online workshops - including topics or leader/presenters that you would like us to include.

Send to Steve Gilbert at: 
GILBERT@TLTGROUP.ORG

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