The effects of class size on effectiveness of online courses

doi:10.1108/01409170410784310

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The effects of class size on effectiveness of online courses

Document Information:
Title:	The effects of class size on effectiveness of online courses
Author(s):	William Drago, (Department of Management, College of Business and Economics, University of Wisconsin-Whitewater, Whitewater, Wisconsin 53190, USA), Jimmy Peltier, (Department of Marketing, College of Business and Economics, University of Wisconsin-Whitewater, Whitewater, Wisconsin 53190, USA)
Citation:	William Drago, Jimmy Peltier, (2004) "The effects of class size on effectiveness of online courses", Management Research News, Vol. 27 Iss: 10, pp.27 - 41
Keywords:	Supervisory programs, Teachers, Teaching, United States of America
Article type:	Case study
DOI:	10.1108/01409170410784310 (Permanent URL)
Publisher:	Emerald Group Publishing Limited
Abstract:	This study sought to determine the effect of class size on the evaluation of teaching effectiveness for on-line courses using a standard student evaluation survey instrument. The data set consists of all MBA courses taught online during an academic year at a large, regional Midwestern university in the U.S. Several simple regression analyses are performed with class size as the independent variable. Dependent variables analysed were global course effectiveness and summated indices representing “building blocks” of online effectiveness. These include course content, instructor support, course structure, student-to-student interaction and instructor to-student interaction. Results indicate no significant relationship between class size and global course effectiveness. In addition, class size showed some significance in predicting instructor support and course structure. Unexpectedly the direction of this association was positive suggesting that larger classes lead to higher levels of instructor support and greater perceived course structure. A comparison to traditional courses is also provided.