"Class size is expected to increase 10 percent to 20 percent next year, while faculty and staff is expected to decline by at least 10 percent over the next five years."
"At the Santa Cruz campus, most general-education courses with fewer than 100 students enrolled have been canceled..."
from NYT's University of California Makes Cuts After Reduction in State Financing
My big conclusion about education is that it does not easily scale. The quality of learning is inversely related to the size of the class. Putting learners around a seminar table, taking turns presenting material and leading discussions, is the method with the best chance to return authentic and significant learning.
This is the model that was followed in my graduate education. This is also the model that my wife enjoyed at Exeter and their famous Harkness philosophy.
Educational technology is all about the effort to have big classes feel and act like small classes. We try to use a combination of teaching methods and technologies to bring all the good things inherent in a seminar model to a class with larger enrollment. These attributes center include students as creators, collaborators and sharers of knowledge. In practice, this means moving beyond a "lecture only" to a "lecture plus" methodology - one in which classes leverage course management systems, Web 2.0 authoring tools, rich media and project based learning.
If large classes (which I mean over 30 students) and learning are to coexist then courses require significant inputs. These inputs could include pairing professors (subject matter experts) with experts in learning design, media, technology, or research. Inputs also include faculty training, support, and mentoring. Investments in learning technologies for students and faculty are another form of inputs.
What institutions cannot do is increase class size without providing these inputs and then expect that students will have authentic and relevant learning experiences. Courses may be taken, lectures may be given, grades may be dispensed, and degrees conferred - but the gap between learning and education will only grow.
This is why the article in todays NYT's "University of California Makes Cuts After Reduction in State Financing" is so disturbing. America's system of post-secondary education has long been one of our crown jewels and the envy of the world. The budget crisis has put this advantage in jeopardy.
As classes get bigger at public institutions I wonder if the increase in class size is being balanced by the addition of other inputs. I wonder if we know enough about how to create active learning in large courses. And I think about how difficult it is to dislodge traditions of lecture based, faculty-centric, information scarcity models of learning.
The challenge of bringing seminar learning to big courses, in an era of constrained resources, is the major challenge of our discipline. This is the challenge that I hope Educause, our professional organization, will choose to focus on over then next few years.
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