The third most often mentioned strategy for improving student success revolved around classes or courses (Table 1-3). These included the availability of courses, especially for majors and graduate students; the scheduling of classes at opportune time for students (e.g., evenings), including avoiding of overlapping of required courses and/or the frequency of offerings needed for graduation; and reducing the size of classes. Sample comments from students in each of these areas are provided below.
Courses | N=49 |
|---|---|
Course availability |
48% |
Increase number of evening courses |
20% |
Reduce class size |
16% |
Improve scheduling of courses |
12% |
Increase number of summer courses |
2% |
Reevaluate program curricula |
2% |
CSULB is effective in graduating students with highly valued degrees. The school would be even more effective if there were more courses available to enable students to graduate within 4 years.
There are many electives available in engineering but students often do not specialize simply due to what’s offered. I could have graduated a year ago but I chose to wait for the classes I wanted.
Make classes available at reasonable times. Offer enough classes so that we're not stuck here for 5 years because of a lack of available courses.
CSULB has many majors that are impacted and as a result there are not a lot of classes available to the students in those majors. Something needs to be done about it. Perhaps more funding for those departments so that more professors can be hired and classes offered.
Class availability. Often a class is mandatory for a degree, however only one section is available once a year which causes incredible amounts of scheduling problems.
Biggest problem--students can't get classes because there are more students than classes available.
Hire more staff to have more classes available. We cannot maintain the student population's growth without doing the same with the faculty.
One major impact that prevents students from graduating "on time" is the availability of courses. Many times, mainly in upper division courses, courses are only taught in one semester and not the other, or sometimes, there is only one section of the course. A student might not be able to take a class for that reason.
Increasing flexibility! The reason I believe students take so long to graduate at CSULB is because certain classes are offered only during specific semesters and often conflict with other required courses. In addition, summer classes should be available during the Fall or Spring sessions so students don't have to pay out of pocket (financial aid does not cover summer courses). This increases the amount of time students need to dedicate to their jobs rather than their education.
MAKE MORE "MANDATORY" (CORE) CLASSES AVAILABLE EACH SEMESTER.
Offering more classes for Graduate Studies, i.e., I'm being forced to focus my MBA in Finance because not enough Marketing classes are offered and I do not want to drag this program out. In addition to that I have not seen a few core classes that I still need in over 3 semesters. There is not enough to choose from.
Some general education classes that may or may not be needed for one’s major are way too difficult; even people who are majoring in those areas have a hard time with them. For example: I have taken a few courses that were general ed classes where 60% of the class has a 60% or less average. If that many people are getting such bad grades and a curve must be set, then maybe the course should be evaluated, and/or another choice should be made available for general education.
Reduce class size. I had a qualitative research class with 30 students in it and it was supposed to only have 15. It made a drastic difference in what we were able to accomplish is one short semester. In education, we know that lecture is the least effective way to teach others. And yet it appears to be the number one choice of most educators at the university level. What is up with that? Teaching methods need to change. Check with the education and science ed departments for suggestions.
