A Local University Is Considering Changes to Its Class Structure

question 119

Essay

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

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Definitions:

Classical Conditioning

A learning process that occurs when two stimuli are repeatedly presented together, leading one to elicit a response once elicited only by the other.

Innate Learning

Knowledge or skills that are present from birth, not acquired through experience or education.

Instinctive Drift

The tendency for an animal's learned behavior to revert to its innate patterns.

Reflex Response

An automatic, involuntary reaction to a specific stimulus without conscious control, such as blinking in response to a puff of air.