Susan,
Between 12:1 and 20:1 is a very impressive range. If your institution is consistent with this practice, then I am sure the students are getting a different level of instructor engagement than they would at institutions ranging over 20 per class. Thank you for sharing your insights.
Dr. S. David Vaillancourt
Crystal,
You are in very good company and your rationale is purported by many. Thank you for your contribution.
Dr. S. David Vaillancourt
Hi Dr. Vaillancourt,
I think that the student-teacher ratio will depend on the course and content. The other thing to take into consideration is if the online class is the only class that you are teaching.
Currently our ratio ranges from 20:1 to recently as low as 12:1. While these numbers are manageable, it can be difficult to manage an online class and an in-house class at the same time.
I think it would depend upon the course: the difficulty of the course, the requirements, assignments, and expectations. When teaching an introductory course, the difficulty and number of assignments may not be as high as a more advanced course. Also, if you want to maintain that contact and keep the students engaged you would not be able to do if ratio was too high. I would say 20:1 would be a good level.
Tonia,
You are in good company. Many online instructors recommend this to be the optimum.
Dr. S. David Vaillancourt
Natalie,
Good point. Makes sense. Thank you for sharing.
Dr. S. David Vaillancourt
I believe the optimal online student-instructor ratio is 20-1.
Having twenty students is much more manageable for me because I can give each student individual attention is needed.
I actually wouldn't mind if the ratio went up to 20:1 in a traditional classroom setting. Having that face-to-face time for a few hours a week might eliminate the time I typically spend fielding email questions from the online students, so I think the ratios could be higher.
Natalie,
Your ratio for an online classroom is right in line with many contributors to this forum. Do you find this ratio comparable to the optimal traditional classroom ratio? Thank you for your contribution.
Dr. S. David Vaillancourt
15:1
I have had classes with more than 15 people and it is truly a bit hard to manage. I try and be fair, give students a chance, but also be assertive in my grading policy and it can prove to be challenging to keep up. The turnaround for grading and email responses can really seem unmanageable when there are more than 15 students in a class.
Matt,
Your explanation is very good. And I think all veteran online instructors would generally agree. The difficulty in our regulatory world, is that a specific number for operational efficacy and compliance regulation is being determined in many organizations. Accrediting bodies are attempting to decide maximum numbers say teachers are not overloaded at the same time for-profit institutions are trying to maximize teacher resources across their student populations. The likelihood of having different maximum/minimum class populations for different types of classes is not very high.
I think the fundamental bases of your approach are academically solid. This is just one of the points at which the academic pursuits comes in conflict with the operational efficiencies. Thank you for your contribution.
Dr. S. David Vaillancourt
Sonya,
Your ratio is in the midst of most online instructors. For most post secondary classes, the consensus is generally at 20:1 as you purport. Very good.
Dr. S. David Vaillancourt
Tina,
This is an interesting perspective. Having 40 students with multiple discussions seems to be an advantage for dynamic class discourse. I agree. Structuring the discussions so students interact more with one another, than with the instructor, provides a much broader base of knowledge in the discussion. Very nice.
Dr. S. David Vaillancourt
I've read though the other replies here and thank you all for the comments. I do not think we can say that there is 1 optimal ratio, it truly depends.
I teach the same class many times, some times with as few as 10 students and others as many at 30. My student participation varies greatly from class to class (That I find frustrating and do not understand, but that is a different topic).
As long as the instructor has the ability to interact with the class and generate participation from all engaged students the ratio is fine. but the instructor must have the ability to interact with everyone that wants the attention. If the class size is so big that the instructor has to pick and choose who they interact with the ratio is too high.
I would say the right balance is one where every student gets the appropriate amount of attention they need or deserve (Yes with limit on those students that just require an abnormally excessive amount of interaction).
-- Matt
The ratio that I believe to be optimal is 20:1. I believe that an instructor could keep up with the interaction between 20 students and it makes a good group size that would allow for several topics to be covered. This would also be a good number to get a variety of responses to discussion questions.
I would say that depends on the difficulty of the course content. Based on my experience with student discussions:
For basic courses, 40 people works well because the students are curious about the online environment. Multiple discussions seem to give them opportunities for expression of both existing and new knowledge. If their grading is weighted more for their discussions which require more interaction with each other and with me. There are more opportunities for them to "click" with multiple types of personalities.
As the courses increase in difficulty, some discussions still take place, and closer to 20 people seems to work well. There are fewer discussions that are mandatory for the student, but the quality of the content improves.
I think there could be the perception of the discussions becoming a burden as the difficulty of the work increases and their could be too much "noise" in the classroom if there were too many students. They might also feel that they are not getting enough instructor attention.
Joe,
This is a terrific approach. The amount of reflective thinking and interactivity would be excellent foundational components for establishing teacher-student ratio in classes. Thank you for your astute insights.
Dr. S. David Vaillancourt
The optimum student-instructor ratio really depends on the type of course and coursework. An asynchronous course at the lowest levels of Bloom’s taxonomy can have a much larger ratio than a critical thinking course at the Evaluation level. The method of presenting the course also affects the number of students. For example, this course has over 70 respondents to the forum. Is the ratio really 70+ to 1? A synchronous course where all assignments are due at one time requires a much smaller enrollment. The more interactive the course, the smaller the ratio should be. We use a ratio of 25-1 for low level courses, 18-1 for midlevel Bloom’s courses and 1-10 for the top two levels. These do vary depending on the complexity of the assignments and material. So, my position is there is no optimal number, but rather an optimal number based on the course requirements.
Leigh,
I think I see your point, for the overview a wide range of students the higher number (16 – 20) is good for assessing the class as a whole. For the optimal individualized environment, you would prefer 10. Thank you for sharing your insights.
Dr. S. David Vaillancourt
From the classes that I have taught online a 16:1 ratio has been most effective not only in grading but in order for the students to have great discussions. Anything from 16-20 allows the instructor to see a wide range of students in how they are learning the content and be able to assess the class as a whole. For OPTIMAL student-instructor ratio I think 10 would be sufficient. It would give more feedback with each student and allow the instructor to have more time with discussion forums and even motivating the student if needed.
