Online Course Facilitator Guidelines
Below are the guidelines for allocation of facilitators in BU Wheelock online courses:
If the enrollment in an online class reaches 16 + students, the instructor has the opportunity to hire a facilitator to aid with course delivery, interacting with students and keeping track of assignments and grades. The detailed list of facilitator responsibilities are enclosed in the facilitator contract appended to these guidelines.
1. Classes with 15 or fewer students will not have facilitators assigned.
2. The assignment of facilitators as a function of class enrollments at the beginning of a course will be as follows:
a. Enrollments of 16 to 30 students – 1 facilitator
b. Enrollments of 31 to 45 students – 2 facilitators
c. Enrollments of 46 to 60 students – 3 facilitators
d. Enrollments of 61 to 75 students – 4 facilitators
e. Enrollments of 76 to 90 students – 5 facilitators
f. Enrollments of 91 to 105+ students – 6 facilitators
3. To the extent possible, students should be distributed uniformly across the groups, with number of students in a group ranging from 15 to 20.
4. In courses with enrollments between 76 and 90 students the course instructor can select one of the existing facilitators to serve as the Lead Facilitator, with additional course responsibilities, including the management of the other course facilitators. A Lead Facilitator will be assigned automatically to any online class with 91 or more students.
5. All courses with 106 or more students may have the option of splitting into two sections, depending on the nature of the course and the availability of qualified instructors. Once a course enrollment reaches 106 students, the instructor may contact the Program Director and Department Chair as well as the Associate Dean for Academic Affairs, the Assistant Dean for Executive Affairs and the Executive Director of Operations to have a discussion on the possibility of splitting the course into two sections.
Requests for exceptions to these guidelines will require a justification provided by the Department Chair with a cc to Program Director and an approval of the Associate Dean for Academic Affairs.