I teach art appreciation and the University mandate is 30-35 students in a course. While this seems high compared to the other comments I see here, it’s been quite manageable. As others have mentioned, I think several factors come into play for my situation:
Few students take Art Appreciation by choice. This means to engage them the material needs to be interesting and (Yes) to some degree entertaining. Back stories behind paintings, cultural events that influenced the artworks and personal intrigues about the artist can help. (Want to know which artist sent his own severed head to the Pope?)
A time-balance has to be maintained between students who are engaged and those who are not. I cheat those who want to learn if I spend all my time trying to engage those who do not.
The difficulty of assignments and hence the time required for grading is a big factor and time management is critical. I have the luxury of semi-retirement so I can dedicate a good deal of time to my students. Time is still a challenge for certain complex assignments because we use only essay assignments, no multiple choices. I’ve learned to have key words I look for as well as major concepts in each student submission.
After instructing this course for multiple sessions, I have discovered patterns in student participation and levels of engagement. There is no greater encouragement for a student than a personalized email indicating a missing assignment or inquiring about and encouraging participation.
I also have fun teaching and helping students discover art is more than something described as “pretty.â€
One online school has 20-15 students in a class. Another school has 15-20 students. I have never heard of a class with 200 students in an online course. I have heard of online schools hiring teaching assistants so those schools might have the 200 student level. i can't imagine a teacher being able to communicate with 200 students on a regular basis. If a school has students do group projects, where the optimal size is 6 students per group, then a class with 15-20 students might be too small for successful group work. Do you think group projects is taken into effect when class size is decided on?
Carl
Charles,
Is this based on a certain type of course? What about a low-end ratio, is there an ideal low-end level? What would it be? What determines your optimal ratio?
Herbert Brown III
I think 10 - 12 would be the low end. Thanks!
The perfect number of students in a course section to provide the optimal feedback and responsiveness will be 20 to 25 students
Lyn ,
So instead of the high-end for a ratio, what would be your low-end ratio for your classes to be the most effective with the methods you use?
Herbert Brown III
Hi all, I agree that class size is very important to my ability to provide individualized attention to students. And, in online classes, it is vital to establish rapport, usually through email with students.
On the other hand, when classes are too small, it becomes difficult to have good interaction in the asynchronous discussions. I like to add poll questions to discussions, and they can be very sucessful when there are around 20 students in the class. Lyn
Hi Ron,
Excellent questions :) I think one answer is economics. The more the students per class, the more the revenue. It could also be demographics, where it is a populous area and there are so many students, or so little teachers. However, regardless of the reasons, it is extremely uneducational for one teacher to effectively "teach" 200 students.
In my undergraduate studies, we used to have certain classes given in large auditorium-type rooms, with 250+ students. The instructor would give us all the content in such classes, and later in the week, we would break out into smaller classes (about 20 students), and the instructor would then go more into a forum-type discussion with the students about the material. This I believe is acceptable, and a positive manner of learning.
Hi Ron,
I certainly agree that there's a direct correlation between the number of students and the level of dedicated instructor activity. However, I would argue, or prefer, that the optimal number be reduced to 15 students per class. As of today, I have three years of online teaching experience. My classes varied from 3 students to just over 30 students. And while different online schools mandate different discussion and student contact requirements, I try to be as visible, engaging, and available as possible. The most positive remark I receive from the students are along the lines of, "The instructor was always available when I needed help", or "The instructor took the time to explain things to me". These are the type of feedback I aim for each class, to be there for the student, fully engaged, and helpful. To achieve this, or to achieve it on a grander scale, the number of students need to be limited to ideally, 15 students.
The optimal online student-instructor ratio for design programs in general probably shouldn't exceed a 20 to 1 ratio. In foundation classes I think this ratio would be more appropriate at something like 15 to 1 as foundation students require more time, explanation and support. Advanced courses can easily be facilitated and managed at 20 to 1 ratio, sum total by my count is a 17.5 to 1 ratio.
Undergraduate business classes with 15 to 20 students provide a good balance for a positive learning experience. At this size, classes include enough students to provide active classroom discussions and give faculty the time necessary to provide highly personalized instruction (i.e., follow up on discussion board postings and detailed grading comments). Especially for classes that have progressive assignments (i.e., writing comprehensive marketing plans), with 15 to 20 students a faculty member can reasonably comment in real time to students (IM, chat, phone calls, etc.) on assignments based on memory. Once classes move to the 25 or 30 student range, it becomes a challenge, without referring back to previous submissions, to provide this type of interaction. This, of course, can become very frustrating to students who may perceive the instructor doesn’t know who they are without going back to classroom files.
Albert,
The time per student ratio does make more sense. This addresses courses that have content and structure that requires more time (therefore less students) and others that allow for more students that might require less time.
Herbert Brown III
Charles,
One way some do it is to ignore the importance of student interaction and just have students read a textbook and complete online multiple choice questions on online quizzes. Others might use a pre-built (textbook vendor supplied) training/assessment system such as those for Microsoft Office courses where the computer provides tutorials, assignments that are autograded, and quizzes. Everything is automated and the instructor just answers questions (more like tech support). Even then, many times TAs are necessary to help too. Certainly not the interaction you can get with a class of 15-20.
Herbert Brown III
Carl,
The course design, course content, and course assignments and evaluation measures do definately play an important role in the optimal ratio. I have also found that 15-20 is a good general number. Is that they number your institution goes by? I have seen some institutions offer courses with 200 students, what level of interaction is in those courses?
Herbert Brown III
Charles,
What would be your perfect number of students in a course section to provide the optimal feedback and responsiveness?
Herbert Brown III
My maximum that I impose on my self is 25 students. If my online institution imposes more students per classroom, I adjust my acceptance of the number of classes to facilitate based on my time commitment. The student/instructor ratio is based on the time commitment of the facilitator. I currently accept only two online classes per session... for me that is three online classes per session.
I am required to hold one live chat session per week.. I have three live chat sessions per week.. The trick is to avoid placing more work on students because the facilitator did not take more time.
I suggest that online instructors use time per student rather than student/instructor ratio. And by the way, I do the same thing in my traditional class rooms.
Yes, if it is a on campus class with 10 teaching assistants, this method is practice is large research institutions such as Stanford University, UCLA, etc.
But online course, no way, its not possible, unless there will be a TAs in the class to assists the Professor for grading papers. How can I grade a 200 papers each week?
It depends on the type of course, if its course that students must write papers, then there will be no effective grading feedback, but if its an introductory course which requires lab work, then it must be fine.
I have found between 15-20 students works well. There needs to be enough students to interact with each other. Too many students keep the instructor to busy with too much work. It also depends on the type of grading that needs to be done.
Student- Instructor ratio is a ratio of number of students attending the school with number of instructors employed by the school. As an example student teacher ratio for college in AIU is 32:1. This means for every 32 students attending the school, there is a 1 teacher. This ratio indicates (indirectly) the attention that a student is likely to receive in a class in that particular school. A class will have students with diverse interests and different learning abilities. Large student teacher ratio, say 50:1, means more students to be managed for each teacher and thus lesser individual attention.
In Online education, I will say an average of 15 to 20 students in a class is optimal from my experience. When there are so many students (over 20 to 40) students in class, the discussion board gets busy, the Instructor cannot read all the discussions and cannot provide grading feedback in timely manner, especially if the Instructor is an Adjunct and have other obligations in other institutions.
Therefore I will say, 20 to 1 student-instructor ratio will be the optimal.
