Faculty requirements planning and course cycling in part-time, online degree programs

Abstract

Many universities are moving toward the offering of part-time, online degree programs particularly at the graduate level. Typically the dean or another administrator is responsible for devising a course cycling plan along with adequate supporting faculty resources that enables students to progress and graduate within a reasonable and expected span of time. This problem is difficult to resolve due to uncertainty of demand for specific courses contained in the program. For example: (i) the program may be delivered with flexibility in time-to-completion, meaning that students are not assigned at admission to a specific cohort that proceeds in lockstep fashion toward graduation; (ii) the curriculum may contain elective courses which inject an element of choice; (iii) some courses may require the completion of other courses as prerequisites creating demand dependencies; and (iv) not every matriculated student successfully completes the program, and empirically observed retention rates will need to be factored in. Here we propose an approach for planning faculty requirements and course offerings that meets student flow and other constraints. The methodology combines linear programming with well-known operations management concepts such as material requirements planning and flow analysis.