Impacts of Class Size on Online Students’ Academic Achievements and Cost of Instruction

This research was designed to assess the impacts of class size on online students’ academic achievements and the cost of instruction in the online learning environment. Two research questions revolved around this purpose. Since the 1950s, class size research has focused more on traditional but little on the online learning environment. Therefore, this research addressed this knowledge gap by focusing on the online learning environment. Pritchard and Woollard’s (2010) classroom dynamics and Blum’s (2005) connectedness theories served as the theoretical frameworks for this research. The research employed an ex post facto comparative design using random samples to determine if there were significant differences between small and large classes concerning academic achievements and the cost of instruction. IBM SPSS Statistics software was used to analyze the data, and the Mann–Whitney U test was used to interpret the results. Class size had a moderately significant impact on online students’ academic achievements, as measured by the graduation rates within 4 years, and a statistically significant impact on the cost of instruction, as measured by the instructional expenditures per student. The results confirmed that students in small classes had better academic outcomes than large ones, but smaller classes were costly. The results will have important implications for stakeholders, such as higher education institution administrators, instructors, student parents, students, and accrediting agencies. Keywords: academic achievements, class size, classroom dynamics theory, connectedness theory, graduation rate within 4 years, instructional expenditures per student, large class, small class, and stakeholders