Why enrollment in many courses dropped for this summer term?

[hamburger]

Hi, I heard from an an administrator in my section that due to low enrollment, all courses have been cancelled. How come? I though more students would have enrolled since it is very easy for them to cheat taking online courses. Since most students at my CC are international students, they can also take the courses in their home country. I cannot understand why enrollment for so many courses dropped to the point that the CC decided to cancel so many courses.

Is this common in other CC and universities?

[Aster]

No. Community colleges across the nation are reporting very high summer enrollments, in some cases, record breaking summer enrollments.

[hamburger]

If I were a student, I would also enroll in as many courses as I could. It is so easy to pass taking the courses at home.

[Parasaurolophus]

It's possible that part of what's going on is that the international students are unable to register for online courses/more than a certain number, or that they aren't getting study permits for it, or that they're deciding there's not much point in getting a study permit and moving to a new country when all their classes would be online.

Or some combination of the above. Your college's situation seems unusual, but not necessarily out of step with what's expected for institutions which are dependent on international enrollment. Our summer classes are very full, for example, because students are desperately trying to cram in six classes so they can finish their degrees. But once that backlog sorts itself out, we expect a huge dip in international enrollments.

[hamburger]

That could be right. The majority of the students are from one particular country.

In the past, students told me that they were too busy to study or do homework because they had to work. With the increase in unemployment rate, maybe they are having a hard time to find a job. However, I heard that some places such as Walmart are hiring more people. They can also go back to their country and take the courses online.

Everything in my college is strange.

[polly_mer]

Why would anyone enroll for online at your institution when they could enroll online anywhere?

If the business model was facilitating entry to your country instead of education, then there's really no reason for international students to be enrolled at your institution if there's no in-person classes.

[arcturus]

If I were a student, I would also enroll in as many courses as I could. It is so easy to pass taking the courses at home.

If this is the case, then you have not done a very good job of designing the course. Your assessment of student learning needs to adapt to the way the course is being taught. Think of this as a good opportunity to re-assess both the importance of specific learning outcomes and how you evaluate student success. For example, I hear many faculty bemoaning the ease at which students can "cheat" in an online format. But what does "cheating" mean? In my day-to-day life I have access to many resources. Sometimes I look up the basics, just to confirm that I have not made a stupid transposition of the variables. If my students also have access to many resources while they are completing an exam or a homework assignment, then I can assume that they are less likely to make these same silly mistakes. In other words, I can hold them to a higher standard, and I can ask them questions that require them to apply what they have learned, not just repeat facts that are easily found on the internet. A well designed assignment will engage students in the material, allow them to develop their higher cognative skills, and reveal how well they have synthesized the material. This is a positive, not a negative, of the online format.

[hamburger]

If I were a student, I would also enroll in as many courses as I could. It is so easy to pass taking the courses at home.

If this is the case, then you have not done a very good job of designing the course. Your assessment of student learning needs to adapt to the way the course is being taught. Think of this as a good opportunity to re-assess both the importance of specific learning outcomes and how you evaluate student success. For example, I hear many faculty bemoaning the ease at which students can "cheat" in an online format. But what does "cheating" mean? In my day-to-day life I have access to many resources. Sometimes I look up the basics, just to confirm that I have not made a stupid transposition of the variables. If my students also have access to many resources while they are completing an exam or a homework assignment, then I can assume that they are less likely to make these same silly mistakes. In other words, I can hold them to a higher standard, and I can ask them questions that require them to apply what they have learned, not just repeat facts that are easily found on the internet. A well designed assignment will engage students in the material, allow them to develop their higher cognative skills, and reveal how well they have synthesized the material. This is a positive, not a negative, of the online format.

I found ways to reduce cheating. For example, randomized the questions and only allowed one minute to answer one MC question which was generous already. I ended up seeing failing grades, tones of complaints and excuses related to "IT issues". At the end, I gave them a two-hour Final to answer 10 simple MC questions. Nobody had IT issues then. For the final project, the majority of them did not even bother to submit as they did very well in the Final. Some of those who submitted thanked me for teaching them. Only one student who did not take any test failed. No nasty comments about me on RMP from this group of students.

[hamburger]

Why would anyone enroll for online at your institution when they could enroll online anywhere?

If the business model was facilitating entry to your country instead of education, then there's really no reason for international students to be enrolled at your institution if there's no in-person classes.

Don't know the details but in the past, I heard that my college has special agreements with a country where the majority of the students are coming from. Some big companies from this country also constantly send their employees to my college because it offers some kind of certificates that are highly valued back home and unique. Perhaps those certificates are not unique anymore.

Interestingly, unlike the universities I have been to, some department heads in STEM are from the business schools. So perhaps it indicates that the CC is being run as a business.

[eigen]

If I were a student, I would also enroll in as many courses as I could. It is so easy to pass taking the courses at home.

If this is the case, then you have not done a very good job of designing the course. Your assessment of student learning needs to adapt to the way the course is being taught. Think of this as a good opportunity to re-assess both the importance of specific learning outcomes and how you evaluate student success. For example, I hear many faculty bemoaning the ease at which students can "cheat" in an online format. But what does "cheating" mean? In my day-to-day life I have access to many resources. Sometimes I look up the basics, just to confirm that I have not made a stupid transposition of the variables. If my students also have access to many resources while they are completing an exam or a homework assignment, then I can assume that they are less likely to make these same silly mistakes. In other words, I can hold them to a higher standard, and I can ask them questions that require them to apply what they have learned, not just repeat facts that are easily found on the internet. A well designed assignment will engage students in the material, allow them to develop their higher cognative skills, and reveal how well they have synthesized the material. This is a positive, not a negative, of the online format.

I found ways to reduce cheating. For example, randomized the questions and only allowed one minute to answer one MC question which was generous already. I ended up seeing failing grades, tones of complaints and excuses related to "IT issues". At the end, I gave them a two-hour Final to answer 10 simple MC questions. Nobody had IT issues then. For the final project, the majority of them did not even bother to submit as they did very well in the Final. Some of those who submitted thanked me for teaching them. Only one student who did not take any test failed. No nasty comments about me on RMP from this group of students.

To me, constraining time rather than just not doing MC questions isn't a great approach. It penalizes students for speed, which is something that isn't as important in measuring learning of the material- and some students just process questions slower than others.

Having questions they have to answer long form and show work helps to reduce cheating, or at least make it obvious.

I just plan on assessments being "full resource" and then ask them to do things that make use of those resources to solve problems for which there is no clean/clear answer, and explain their work.

It's still somewhat susceptible to Chegg/paying someone to do your work, but helps a lot with low-hanging cheating in a way that doesn't make the course less accessible/increase stress.

[Hegemony]

Some disciplines don't allow for long-form, "showing your work" type questions.

I think a lot of students are burnt out from a term online, and want a break.

However, the OP's focus on "They're all such cheaters, why wouldn't they want to do this to cheat?" again speaks of such contempt for the students and the process that I don't think there's much question why they wouldn't want to enroll in further classes from the OP.

[hamburger]

Some disciplines don't allow for long-form, "showing your work" type questions.

I think a lot of students are burnt out from a term online, and want a break.

However, the OP's focus on "They're all such cheaters, why wouldn't they want to do this to cheat?" again speaks of such contempt for the students and the process that I don't think there's much question why they wouldn't want to enroll in further classes from the OP.

But administrator said she cancelled "all" courses due to low enrollments.

[polly_mer]

Yes, hamburger, you work somewhere with a business model that doesn't work when the bottom drops out.

That's true for a lot of institutions at this point.

People who were already working too much to study likely don't have the means to enroll in courses at this point.  Either they are working even more hours while the hours are available or they don't have the money for tuition.

People who wanted an education or even a good-enough certificate likely will not be enrolling in ad-hoc, low-quality offerings when so many good-quality offerings are available. 

It's not that hard to find an institution with solid experience in online education for courses that go well online and get enrolled for summer at reasonable price.  Some institutions have been set up for that situation for the past several years as a business model to capture summer students from other institutions.

[hamburger]

Yes, hamburger, you work somewhere with a business model that doesn't work when the bottom drops out.

That's true for a lot of institutions at this point.

People who were already working too much to study likely don't have the means to enroll in courses at this point.  Either they are working even more hours while the hours are available or they don't have the money for tuition.

People who wanted an education or even a good-enough certificate likely will not be enrolling in ad-hoc, low-quality offerings when so many good-quality offerings are available. 

It's not that hard to find an institution with solid experience in online education for courses that go well online and get enrolled for summer at reasonable price.  Some institutions have been set up for that situation for the past several years as a business model to capture summer students from other institutions.

Thanks Polly.  I heard that there are some serious problems in my CC. The source did not tel me the details.

From another department, I heard that online courses will be recorded from this semester. Previously it was optional. If the school has recordings of courses, does that mean there will be less hiring and perhaps also reduced working hours for adjuncts as the school can just play back the videos.

[polly_mer]

From another department, I heard that online courses will be recorded from this semester. Previously it was optional. If the school has recordings of courses, does that mean there will be less hiring and perhaps also reduced working hours for adjuncts as the school can just play back the videos.

Yes, that's definitely a possibility.

It's also possible for an institution to get away from hiring adjuncts altogether once the move has been made to online by paying for externally provided online courses.

Those courses are generally higher production quality, albeit courses in a box with few/no local changes, that have a live person somewhere attached to them, but generally through a for-profit employer, not the local institution.  Thus, there may be faculty-like positions available through the for-profit employer, but they are not standard adjunct positions available locally or even standard full-time faculty positions that include a private office with the approvals to apply for grants for research.