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?

---

Definitions:

Elasticities of Demand

A measure of how much the quantity demanded of a good responds to a change in price, indicating the sensitivity of consumers to price changes.

Economic Incentive

A financial or material benefit that motivates individuals or businesses to act in certain ways or pursue particular courses of action.

Price Discrimination

A method of pricing in which a provider charges different prices for virtually identical goods or services in different market areas.

Electric Heating

A system of converting electric energy into heat for warming indoor spaces, typically regarded as more efficient than traditional heating methods.