By Jeffrey R. Young, EdSurge
Crafting an efficient schedule of college course offerings means solving a complex puzzle. And more colleges these days are turning to algorithms to help reduce the number of classes that are either overloaded or full of empty seats. A study out last week of about 200 colleges found that many course schedules are “unbalanced,” with 45 percent of courses analyzed filled to less than 70 percent capacity and 23 percent of courses classified as “overloaded,” meaning more than 95 percent full. That inefficiency is having an impact on retention, the study found. The greater the inefficiency of the course catalog, the lower the graduation rate at the institutions analyzed. But even if an AI system can show college leaders where they need to create more courses, there’s still a bigger problem: The college may not have the resources to hire additional faculty to create those sections.
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