Graduate School of Education
Curriculum and Instruction
Christine Chaille, Ph.D.
Professor and Chair
Post Office Box 751
Portland, Oregon 97207-0751
503-725-4756 tel
503-725-8475 fax
chaillec@pdx.edu
March 16, 2015
To:
Leadership Team
From: Christine Chaille, Chair, Curriculum and Instruction
RE:
Proposal for Cap on Online Courses
Currently, caps on courses are determined by Chairs when the schedules are
submitted. The requests of instructors are often taken into account through this process.
While there are good reasons for variations in caps on enrollment, we should
consider agreeing to a uniform cap on fully online courses. The proposal is that the cap on
enrollment be set at 25 students.
Rationale:
1. Fully online courses are time-intensive, and each individual in a course
requires extensive interaction and feedback in ways that are different from
in-person courses.
2. There should be some regularity within and across departments because of
issues of equity.
3. This guideline could be modified in special circumstances. Based on the
pedagogy of the course, nature of the course content, and the need of the
program, the cap could be higher or lower than 25. This would, however,
be the exception.
Adopted by the Leadership Team on March 16, 2015