According to Qiu, Hewitt & Brett (2012), “Class size has long been recognized as a factor affecting students’ achievement in face-to- face instructional contexts but has been little investigated in online courses. Some research has shown that online class size certainly has important effects on information overload in computer conferencing courses”. This, therefore, means that the size of online classes contributes largely to how educational objectives are realized in online learning. Additionally, further research has indicated that online class size certainly has important effects on information overload in computer conferencing courses. This is because the more the students there are in a particular class the more the notes to be read and written are read are. This is contributed by the fact that every student has a particular number of notes to read and write and bigger classes ultimately cause the number of notes to increase as compared to smaller classes.
“Collaboration is especially important in online learning …the purpose of collaborative groups is to achieve consensus and shared classroom authority … With collaborative learning, the control of learning is turned over to the students, and the learning environment is student-centric” Class size is further responsible for the overall quality of education that is delivered to the students. This is so because, with larger classes, research has proved that diversity which is represented therein can facilitate learning through the sharing of diverse ideas in what is referred to as collaborative learning. This may not be realized in smaller classes which may compromise the quality of educational outcomes delivered.
Delegate your assignment to our experts and they will do the rest.
Research indicates that “In online graduate courses, the reading load comprises articles plus notes… As class size increased, most students in large classes started to feel that there was always “a lot to read.” This means that larger classes pose a challenge to the tutors who are always dealing with supervising the note reading and writing denying the learners the much-needed attention when it comes to explaining notes. Consequently, learning outcomes in online classes are highly determined by the strategies that online class facilitators have put in place which are widely determined by the class size. To improve learning outcomes learning should be arranged in such a way that balance between class size, workload, group and personal contributions is struck. Otherwise, failure to do so will contribute to a failure in the online learning which has become a method of choice for man learners.
