1. The Whys and Hows of Large Enrollment Online Courses at KSU
Tiffani Reardon
Instructional Designer
Kennesaw State University

2. The Whys of Large Enrollment at KSU
KSU is growing by leaps and bounds
Out of space for face-to-face classes and out of faculty to teach them
Big pushes to reduce the student debt load
Bottlenecks in gen. ed. that delay progression toward graduation

3. The Hows of Large Enrollment at KSU
University-level:
Large Enrollment Online Task Force
MOOCs
College-level:
College of Humanities and Social Sciences Faculty Learning Community
Pilot Course – African American Literature with 120 students

4. What we have learned about large enrollment online gen. ed. courses
Re-designing the course is a must – we can’t throw 100 students into a course made for 25 Large enrollment isn’t practical in writing-intensive courses
Managing faculty workload
Maintaining student engagement
Alternating group discussions – minimize grading
Clear and valuable prompts for discussions
Group projects – minimize grading
Clear assignment instructions
Intelligent agents – you write an for a specific occasion once, sends when a student triggers it
Students feel “seen” because they think you are sending them personal s
Gamification – you create self-grading games and activities that you never have to look at again
Students get an engaging way to assess themselves that is also fun!

5. What we have learned about MOOCs
Designing for a global audience helps participants from other cultures stay involved and engaged in the materials throughout the course
Explain that instructors are (insert culture) and some references may be unfamiliar to participants, but that the material is applicable in many cultures
Offer the opportunity for participants to share differences from their cultures via discussion forum
Peer-review works when there a lot of active participants, but not so much when there aren’t enough participants for everyone’s projects to get reviewed
Remaining active in the course in small ways makes you more present in the course and helps participants progress

6. Thoughts? Questions?
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