A local university is considering changes to its class structure in an effort to increase professor productivity

Question

The old schedule had each professor teaching 5 classes per week, with each class meeting an hour per day on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. Each class contained 20 students. The new schedule has each professor teaching only 3 classes, but each class meets daily (Mon.-Fri.) for an hour. New classes contain 50 students.
a. Calculate the labor productivity for the initial situation (students/hour).
b. Calculate the labor productivity for the schedule change (students/hour).
c. Are there any ethical considerations that should be accounted for?
d. Suppose that each teacher also is required to have 2 hours of Office Hours each day he/she taught class. Is the schedule change a productivity increase?

Answer 1

(a) Professors teach 100 students in 15 hours or 6.67 students/hour.
(b) Professors teach 150 students in 15 hours or 10 students/hour.
(c) Responses should focus on honoring stakeholder commitment and can include students per professor ratio, class sizes, quality of education, etc.
(d) Initial productivity is 100 students in 21 hours or 4.76 students/hour. New productivity is 150 students in 25 hours or 6 students/hour, an increase or 1.24 students/hour.