Experts Say Class Size Can Matter for Online Students - Devon Haynie, US News

Class sizes can vary widely in online education, where enrollment is not limited by the constraints of a physical classroom. Massive open online courses, which some students can now take for credit, can contain thousands of students. Among the 187 ranked online bachelor's programs that submitted data to U.S. News in 2013, meanwhile, average class size ranged from one to 150. The research behind class size in an online environment is inconclusive, says Kay Shattuck, director of research with Quality Matters, a nonprofit that helps universities and others design effective online courses. Still, plenty of experts believe that class size matters, and urge online students to think carefully about the size of their online classrooms before signing up for a course or a degree. http://www.usnews.com/education/online-education/articles/2014/09/26/experts-say-class-size-can-matter-for-online-students