Mega-classes at UCF prompt students to scramble for seats
Kayleigh McGoldrick claimed a spot on the floor next to the garbage can for her finance lecture.
There were other University of Central Florida business students who lost the battle to find seats, too, so they plopped down in the aisles or leaned against the back wall during the first week of school.
Packed classrooms are a reality for business administration majors at UCF, one of the nation’s largest schools with more than 61,000 students. In one class, about 1,000 are enrolled, even though the lecture hall holds about 270.
These mega- classes, which cost the same as a regular lecture class, emerged in 2006. Known as lecture-capture classes, the professors teach while a crew films them so the lectures are live-streamed and can also be replayed later online. That way, students don’t have to come to campus.
In spring 2014, there were 111 such classes at UCF, up 9 percent from fall 2013 when there were 102, according to the most recent numbers available from the university.
The class format is not unheard of at other large schools, including the University of Florida.
Spencer Brooks, a UCF student from Minnesota, called the situation frustrating. The 21-year-old pays for out-of-state tuition himself, taking out loans and working at a pizzeria.
Why can’t his class have enough seats? he asks. “I feel like I deserve it,” Brooks said.
Lecture-capture classes are significantly larger than the others around campus. For instance, the largest inperson class – a science course — tops in at 450 students.
UCF officials have acknowledged class size is an issue, and UCF Provost Dale Whittaker has declared hiring more faculty a top issue, promising to bring on 100 new full-time positions this year.
On Thursday, associate lecturer Ray Sturm lectured about chapter one of an accounting book for a class of 1,013 in the lecture hall that seats about 270.
If he had been told when he started his UCF teaching career nearly 14 years ago that his class would be this big, Sturm said, “I wouldn’t have thought that it was possible.”
But there are advantages to this kind of classroom where the UCF juniors grew up with technology and are naturals to online learning, he said. When the lessons get more complicated deeper in the semester, his students can rewind if they miss something.
“They’re able to go back and review that. ‘What he did he say there?’” he said.
UCF officials often tout their mission to make higher education more accessible, especially for stu- dents who are the first in their families to go to college or arrived on campus with associate degrees.
Often, these students — and many others on campus — work while they attend school.
“Anytime you schedule a class, not everyone is going to be there,” Sturm said, adding the online format makes a difference.
The university offers this style of classes to give students more options, UCF spokeswoman Zenaida Kotala said.
Business College Dean Paul Jarley added that lecture capture is used for core business courses, so class sizes get smaller as students progress through their majors.
Depending on the class, up to 86 percent of students scored at least a C or better in lecture-capture classes in spring 2014 versus up to 90 percent with the same performance in regular, in-person classes, according to the university. “They [grades] are slightlower, but the access is
ly greatly increased,” said Chuck Dziuban, UCF’s director for Research Initiative for Teaching Effectiveness.
On Thursday, Sturm cheerfully peppered topical asides into his morning lecture — like a reference to Facebook and its finances — to catch his students’ attention. “Pay attention in video land,” he said when going over an important point.
The video was high quality — as if you were watching Sturm teach from the second or third row in the large lecture hall. The audio was easy to hear. The computer screen also played the lecture notes Sturm showed in his class.
Does Sturm consider watching the video the same experience as sitting in the class? “It’s pretty darn close,” he said.
Sturm knows he will get emails — dozens already had come in within 48 hours of the first class — that he and his three teaching assistants answer for those who didn’t physically come to class to ask.