Institutions are continuously searching for ways to improve academic decision making to meet student needs and eliminate waste. A critical factor to becoming more efficient is understanding where instructional resource allocation does not match student demand. In other words, it’s important to identify the correct maximum capacity for courses.
Course fill rates are an important measure of efficiency when making academic resource allocation decisions. However, fill rates are only accurate if course enrollment can be compared to a true maximum enrollment capacity (max cap). Unreliable max caps prevent institutions from determining if existing capacity is fully utilized.
This resource is part of the Align Workloads and Schedules with Student Demand Roadmap. Access the Roadmap for stepwise guidance with additional tools and research.
We’ve analyzed fill rates across the APS collaborative and found max caps to be inconsistent and unreliable due to both a lack of comprehensive policy for setting class sizes and a lack of policy enforcement. The Maximum Capacity Toolkit will help members improve fill rate accuracy with guidance to diagnose factors contributing to unreliable max caps at your institution and strategies to build and implement an effective max cap policy.
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3 tools to build a maximum capacity policy
Use this diagnostic to assess the causes of max cap data issues. These questions map factors that reduce unreliability of max caps to the underlying issue(s) and focus improvement efforts on corresponding solutions. Access the tool.
Use this guide to build core components to craft a policy to provide guidance to academic leaders and faculty regarding expectations for class sizes and capacity utilization. Access the tool.
Use this checklist to confirm you have addressed the key components of a policy and positioned it to be successful. Access the tool.
“Course planning and capacity management are helpful, but the true reason to set enrollment caps is to make sure students are successful in appropriate class sizes and settings.”
David Clark
Interim Dean, College of Letters & Sciences
UW-Milwaukee
This resource requires EAB partnership access to view.
Access the tool
Learn how you can get access to this resource as well as hands-on support from our experts through Academic Affairs Forum.