Faith ,
It depends on the instructor and the content. Unfortunately, I have seem some instructors remove most of the interactive components from larger courses because they do not have the time to properly respond. This would also reduce the effectiveness of most online courses (which is what I believe you would find in the literature). The key to online environments is to build a sense of community in your courses with instructor to students interaction and student to student interactions. You can do more peer reviews and student driven interactions to help facilitate larger classes as well.
Herbert Brown III
Lauree,
Those numbers and arguments are fairly consistent with most online instructors I have discussed this topic with.
Herbert Brown III
I believe 12 is too few. I teach a lot of courses with less than 12 students in them (masters level). Fortunately at that level most of the students do participate, but the dynamics feel more like a correspondence course than a course where the students can get fully engaged with great opportunities for discussion, debate and disagreement (professional voice of course... most of the time).
I believe the optimum student teaching ratio in an online course is 15-25 and closer to 25. This allows for a much richer discussion in the discussion boards.
I want to teach an online course and hope for a small number (12) the first time. How do instructors deal with a large number of students - more than 20?
Herbert,
For me, it depends on the course that I am teaching.
If it is a detailed more difficult class, I prefer closer to 15 students, so that I can give the attention that they may need to grasp the complex concepts.
If it is a general education or starter class, I prefer 20 students because the discussions are then more lively with more personalities.
Lauralee
In a perfect world, the ideal Instructor/Student ratio is 1/1. This would mean that an instructor could tailor lessons, activities, and assessments SPECIFICALLY to that student. They could also answer any questions or address any issues with material quickly and precisely.
This is one of the areas where online learning can be very effective, because, especially through forum replies or personal e-mails, the instructor has the time to address each student's issues individually. So, while the course content may not be COMPLETELY customizable, instructor interaction can be.
I have found that between 12 and 18 students per course is optimal for me. Fewer than 12 students makes it difficult to carry on a meaningful and engaging discussion. There are just too few responders, and eventually the discussion becomes repetitious and boring.
More than 18 students tends to have the opposite effect. There are too many voices, and some voices sit back and attempt to get lost in the crowd. That is much harder to do in an online classroom, of course, but I have seen students in larger classroom resort to posting only the minimum number of times just to get by instead of fully engaging in the discussion.
On a personal note, I find that trying to keep up with more than 18 students in a course is difficult for me as an instructor. That is a lot of grading, especially in online courses where you have a paper or assessment due each week.
Rebecca
Gail,
This is an excellent point. I teach business communications courses which are writing intensive and it is very hard to give the individual writing feedback in a timely manner if the number exceeds about 15 as you mention.
Herbert Brown III
I teach a remedial English class, and when the number of student exceeds 15, I feel that my ability to give each student the attention he/she needs diminishes. I like to give thorough responses to all assignments ASAP, but the more students, the less time I have for that.
David,
The MOOC model is also becoming popular; however, not much research has been done on the effectiveness of the MOOC model. I think your final two sentences about engagement are very important. Students that typically feel more engaged and connected in their learning are more likely to stay involved in online learning. We lose students when they feel disconnected from their learning, instructors, etc. The 15-20 for the typical class is what most people identify as ideal.
Herbert Brown III
I teach online and I usually have 20 to 25 students. I think the optimal online student-instructor ratio should be no more than 15 students. The smaller the class, the more time the instructor has to focus on students who may be lagging behind.
The structure of the online class is a key factor in determining appropriate class size. If the class is following a tutorial structure I feel that a larger class of up to 100 participants may be appropriate. The Institute for Healthcare Improvement's Collaborative Breakthrough series have had noteworthy sucess with classes well over 500 participants achieving level 3 & 4s on the Kirkpatrick's Four-Level Training Evaluation Model. (Donald Kirkpatrick, Professor Emeritus at the University of Wisconsin and past president of the American Society for Training and Development (ASTD), first published his Four-Level Training Evaluation Model in 1959, in the US Training and Development Journal. - See more at: http://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/kirkpatrick.htm#sthash.16ccxC8V.dpuf) The Kirkpatrick Four-Level Training Evaluation Model can help the instuctor objectively analyze the effectiveness and impact of their training/instruction, so that the instructor can adjust and improve it in the future. But if we are seeking to fully engage the students, I believe in a smaller class size and feel anywhere from 15 to 20 is appropriate to fully engage our students in learning. I have worked with large groups in the past and have found that I have made more meaningful connections when the groups were smaller.
Jacinda,
15 to 1 is around my preferred ratio for many of the same reasons. I do find that the optimal ratio changes based on a number of factors. The level of the content (undergrad. or graduate), design of the course, types of activities and interactions all plan a very important role in the optimal online ratio.
Herbert Brown III
My optimal online student-instructor ratio is 15 to one. With that number of students discussion forums remain very active. It is also easy as the instructor to provide timely feedback and grading. In my experiences, ratios greater than this are a bit difficult to manage because it is very labor intensive and time consuming. With a small ratio, I am able to get to know my students much better on an individual basis.
Lyn,
It is interesting that your resident portion of the program is the problem area. Based on what you mention here can you start the resident section with a "summary" of facts and details so students before you begin much student to student interactions to try to alleviate the misinformation. Not knowing your exact learning model and content it is hard for me to provide specifics.
Herbert Brown III
We have had up to 28 students in our hybrid online courses. The student to student experience has helped considerably.
However, I would like to note, one of the biggest problems with the larger classes and student to student experience has been misinformation that is unintentionally passed along from one student to the next.
Since we instruct hybrid courses, the lecture and hands on technical information takes place in the resident portion of the course. Regretfully, this is where most of the student to student misinformation seems to be taking place. The online portion, lecture and in class instruction will usually fix the "problem" yet there are times it can be rather difficult to control. When instructing large hybrid classes, there seems to a handful of students who do not yet have a full grasp of the material provided but insist on "instructing" others. As the instructor, trying to correct this misinformation can be a bit overwhelming at times. Do you have any suggestions, other than speaking to the students causing the original "misinformation" problem, that may help eliminate this issue?
The class size of 15-20 is a great size. You are able to keep up with each student and their posting. It is also better for the students they are able to not feel overwhelmed with readig and replying to their peers.
Christy,
All excellent points. Well articulated.
Herbert Brown III
From my experience in being both an online student and an online professor, I believe that the suggested 20 to 25 student ratio is too high for both undergrad and grad online courses. Ten to 15 is more reasonable if you want to keep good interaction between instructor-student and student-student. In addition, the ideal optimal online student-instructor ratio will probably vary depending on the complexity of the material and the length of the class.
Some of the previous answers mentioned in this forum refer to a cost for the institution to maintain a certain number of students per class to ensure profitability; however that should not be a consideration when answering the intent of the question “what is the optimal online student-instructor ratio?†A lower number is better regardless if the institution will be profitable or not.
I have found from experience that a student’s comfort using a computer is also an influencing factor. Computer savvy students are very comfortable participating in on-line discussions, where as non-computer savvy students are not as comfortable and tend to participate with less frequency and less content. I also agree with a prior answer that when teaching online classes we must recognize that there are many barriers to online learning which can take up a lot of the instructor’s time if we are to have good interaction and ensure effective learning.
Of course, if the quality of the online course is very good, the instructor is familiar with the course management system, roles and expectations are clearly defined upfront, the course content supports the learning objectives, and the instructor is familiar with course delivery techniques and strategies, then perhaps a larger number of students can be accommodated and still be effective. The burden is on the instructor to make sure that he or she is prepared and ready to deliver.
