Gershom,
Well stated. This is the position of the majority of online instructors.
Dr. S. David Vaillancourt
Johnnie,
Your point is very valid. The 'right; number is often dependent on the course requirements.
Dr. S. David Vaillancourt
Eric,
Maintaining a high level of engagement with the individual students would support your numbers.
Dr. S. David Vaillancourt
Amy,
Very good. This is in alignment with many of your contemporaries.
Dr. S. David Vaillancourt
John,
This is good rationale and a sound number.
Dr. S. David Vaillancourt
Samantha,
Yes, the low end threshold is very important also. Thank you for your contribution.
Dr. S. David Vaillancourt
Samantha,
This is a reasonable rationale. Thanks for sharing.
Dr. S. David Vaillancourt
Rubiela ,
Very commendable. Keep moving those students toward engaging their minds.
Dr. S. David Vaillancourt
Based on my online teaching experience I would say the optimal student-to-instructor ratio is 15-22 students for every instructor. Outside of grading papers, providing lectures, and keeping discussion on track, we are also mentors. This means supporting the students in anyway that we can, getting to know them on a personal level and providing timely feedback. This is extremely difficult to do in classes with over 22 students.
My online class experience thus far is limited to one particular math course. Although a typical class has 20 students enrolled, only 50-60% are active participants. IF an instructor is taking the time to give individualized formative feedback, 10-12 actively participating students seems reasonable (at least for this particular class). However, and most certainly, the complexity and volume of the content influence these numbers significantly.
Greetings. This is a great question. I teach online businesses courses and am typically involved in the course discussions 6 days per week. A class size of 15-20 allows me to be highly active in the course discussions. Thus, I am able to respond to each student main post and will often follow up during the week.
It is more difficult when participating in the discussions with 25-40 students. This is especially true with 35-40 students in the course. It becomes more challenging (survival mode) to respond to each main post AND follow up with replies.
Best, Eric Freeman
If I were queen for the day, I would have a 20:1 ratio. This allows for good discussion and interaction between students, yet also allows enough time for the instructor to give individualized feedback and help to each student.
I would say for the ratio should be 20 students per instructor. It is very important that instructors do have enough time to build a relationship with as many students as possible in the class. In online classes, students must see the support of the instructor (I believe) on a daily basis. Instructors must perform the many roles and duties required of them to best help guide the learning of their students and I think this is best accomplished when the ratio is 20 to 1.
Hello
I certainly see your points about not having enough interaction. I once had a class with 4 students and there was no activity in the discussion forum. So I think that a good number is 15-20.
Hello
Most online courses that I teach have at least 30 students in them. If the majority of the work is quizzes/tests that the system grades this number is ok. But, in programs that require writing assignments, I think the number of enrolled students should be capped at 20. I like to give a lot of formative feedback and with too many students and time constraints having more students is too difficult.
Samantha
I have consider different encouragement methods to increase the students participation in the live chat and the discussion board and keeping the 75% goals has been my interest. If during a week I dont see much participation, I tried to include more than one posting in the discussion board per day and keep posting announcements to remind the students the requirements for participation and the deadlines for each posting and assignment requirements. I think that in the case of the DBs, the more you participate and get the students involved contributing to their posting, the more they interact. I do my best to post to the forum and the group comments in relationship to the topic on hand to gear the participations to the right direction and at the same time to make sure students are aware that you are considering their contributions.
Jennifer,
Thank you for providing this terrific explanation and additional information. You are very correct that the optimal ratio is a dependent variable. Thank you for sharing this contribution.
Dr. S. David Vaillancourt
Mahmoud,
Most online instructors agree that approximately 10 students is a good minimal number. Your upper range of 40 is higher than most online instructors indicate, but it is definitely manageable under appropriate circumstances. Thank you for your contribution.
Dr. S. David Vaillancourt
ANN,
Very good. This seems to be the optimal ratio of choice for most online instructors.
Dr. S. David Vaillancourt
In my experience the optimal Student-Instructor Ratio is determined by a number of factors.
1. The abilities of the students in the class.
2. The amount of students a teacher feels comfortable with being able to serve properly.The needs the teacher needs to be able to meet include a human connection,motivation, material focus, and course movement.
The level of teacher involvement in these matters changes depending on the age group of the student.
Because of this it could be determined that a lower ratio would be more favorable to the student.
However studies have shown that in adult e-learning education a well constructed course in a well-run CMS will create a very similar learning gain and sense of respect for the learning as a live teacher interaction (Munoz-Merino). So the optimal student ratio is the ratio where students experience high learning gains.
Munoz-Merino, P.J.; Kloos, C.D.; Munoz-Organero, M.; , "Enhancement of Student Learning Through the Use of a Hinting Computer e-Learning System and Comparison With Human Teachers," Education, IEEE Transactions on , vol.54, no.1, pp.164-167, Feb. 2011
doi: 10.1109/TE.2010.2045001
URL: http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/stamp/stamp.jsp?tp=&arnumber=5439694&isnumber=5705620
