Taylor University as an academic institution has a responsibility to address the needs of the students. This can look like making sure residence halls are clean, food at the Hodson Dining Commons is good quality, or most importantly, that classes are facilitating learning in the way that is most beneficial for the student.
With the growing number of incoming Taylor students in recent years, class sizes have been steadily increasing since 2021. In recent years, the student to faculty ratio has been 12:1, but has grown to a 14:1 ratio. While this gap is not huge, these numbers help illustrate a trend: Taylor is growing and changing.
With these growing class sizes, there are two factors to be considered: consistency in class sizes or catering to the learning needs of students. An answer to this debate can be answered simply — add more sections of foundational core classes online for students who learn better online to have the opportunity to thrive.
Taylor currently has 75-85 online classes that students can sign up for. This includes foundational core classes like ENG 110 (College Composition) and ART 172 (Art Appreciation).
Currently, when students go to apply for classes for the upcoming semester, they are able to view and sign up for a small subset of online foundational core classes. There is a push from the office of online learning for more online classes to be added as needed.
Carrie Meyer, director of online learning, said that the number of online classes and students signing up for them have been increasing ever since COVID in 2020.
“The feedback thus far has been that that was a successful endeavor, and we're hopeful that we are going to be permitted to do it again,” Meyer said. “I have students that come (to me) every year before they go home for Christmas, and they say, ‘I want to enroll in an online class over winter. How do I do it?’ This year I had the option to say we're piloting four classes.”
In order to increase student involvement in online classes, 2024 was the first year that a winter term was offered online at Taylor. Meyer worked with other online learning employees to develop the program that would span six or seven weeks, through Christmas break and part of January.
However, online learning is not the answer for every student, and it is not suitable for the needs of every student. Some students may be more suited to online learning while others prefer the relationships that in-person classes offer.
One obstacle to offering more online classes is that it would require additional faculty to compensate for the course load.
Jeff Groeling, department chair and professor of communications, highlights this issue, saying that good online classes are difficult to establish and maintain for any professor.
“When I've taught online, I teach (in) a very particular way, but I do it in a very high quality, very interactive manner,” Groeling said. “If you do it right, do it well, it's going to be more work. But I care, and my students know I care whether it's face to face or online, too. Good instructors are good instructors. Bad instructors are bad instructors.”
Matt Renfrow, dean of the school of natural and applied sciences and professor of kinesiology, agreed that widening the circle of learners is one of the strategic goals of Taylor.
In response, the department has added online sections of core kinesiology classes.
“There is passionate discussion around these issues because we all deeply love and want to preserve the transformational Taylor experience,” Renfrow said. “I believe there is strong agreement across our various constituencies about what the essential elements of that experience are. The more complex questions largely concern degree—to what extent should we expand virtual offerings and class sizes? These are multifaceted questions without simple answers, but I am grateful that we are facing growing pains rather than sharper pains of atrophy.”
As Taylor continues to grow in size and number, educators must make decisions about what they value more — quality of learning and student engagement or sacrificing student relationships for the sake of safeguarding in-person learning.
