{"id":1883,"date":"2021-11-01T09:20:49","date_gmt":"2021-11-01T16:20:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ecampus.oregonstate.edu\/news\/?p=1883"},"modified":"2024-07-23T12:10:07","modified_gmt":"2024-07-23T19:10:07","slug":"online-class-size-research","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ecampus.oregonstate.edu\/news\/online-class-size-research\/","title":{"rendered":"When does online class size matter? Read the study"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/p>\n

Oregon State Ecampus research reveals that 30 students might be the tipping point<\/h2>\n

The Oregon State University Ecampus Research Unit<\/a> recently conducted a study on a rarely researched topic in online education: class size.<\/p>\n

What the researchers found is that students\u2019 grades were higher in certain online classes that had lower enrollment, and that it may be beneficial to limit particular kinds of courses to 30 students or fewer.<\/p>\n

Class size has been discussed for hundreds of years, especially in K-12 contexts. However, fewer studies have examined class size in online higher education courses.<\/p>\n

Enrollment in online courses and programs has consistently increased for more than a decade, and some leaders in higher education project that online education may become even more prevalent as instructors and students continue to navigate life amid the COVID-19 pandemic.<\/p>\n

The authors of the Oregon State study \u2014 Rebecca Arlene Thomas, Ph.D., a postdoctoral scholar with the Ecampus Research Unit, and director Mary Ellen Dello Stritto, Ph.D. \u2014 pursued this topic to help advance the quality standards of online higher education.<\/p>\n

\u201cInvestigating class sizes at the university level is important because administrators can use these results to make recommendations about setting limits on class sizes,\u201d Dello Stritto said. \u201cWhile capping at 30 may be beneficial for upper-division and STEM courses, in other types of lower-division or liberal arts courses, larger class sizes may not be problematic.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe results suggest we should leverage the benefits of smaller class sizes for courses where students could benefit the most.\u201d<\/p>\n

Oregon State\u2019s study found, in part, that:<\/p>\n