Decreasing enrollments and an increasing pressure to offer courses at times convenient to the increasingly busy community college student presents challenges to course scheduling. Students often need specific courses to complete their program of study. To run these course, typically a class size cap must be met. To find a solution to overcome all of these challenges, Bucks County Community College in Newtown, Penn., piloted a multi-campus classroom format.
The multi-campus classroom format enables one instructor to teach students at all three campus locations. This format relies on videoconferencing technology, a learning management system, and instructional techniques to engage students despite physical distance. To test out both the technology and pedagogy, we ran a one-course pilot in spring 2016 and a four-course pilot in fall 2016. We gathered results from the pilots via surveys and informal conversations with students and faculty, which led to an improvement in the technology and pedagogical support. With improvements in place, academic areas regularly schedule courses in the multi-campus format. As a result, 51 courses successfully ran in the multi-campus classroom format that would have otherwise been canceled due to low enrollment.
Implementing a multicampus classroom format relies on the following best practices:…Read More