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?