One Size Does Not Fit All - Wayne D’Orio, Inside Higher Ed

With residential enrollments down and online student enrollments up, many private nonprofit and public colleges and universities are expanding their distance education courses and programs. Still, even though online classes have existed for 20-plus years, administrators, faculty members and staff are frequently tripped up by what seems like a basic question: How many students should be in an online class? Examining how both experienced institutions and newcomers to online learning set class sizes shows this task is much more art than science. “The big question we all want to solve in terms of course size is: How do we increase capacity and access without diminishing academics,” said Luke Dowden, the director of the office of distance learning at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette, which went from offering 13 online courses in 2010 to 191 in 2017. https://www.insidehighered.com/digital-learning/article/2017/05/17/online-class-sizes-one-size-doesnt-fit-all