What is the "right" number of participants in an online session?

Recently, while speaking at an industry conference on how to design good synchronous learning, a question from the audience was posed: What is the "right" number of participants in an online session?

The answer is: it depends.

First, you must consider: what exactly you are trying to accomplish with your online experience?

Are you simply presenting information/knowledge? If so, you could have 50 or more participants in your online session. If you don't expect any interaction and you don't expect people to leave the session with any actionable skills, then the number of participants is almost irrelevant.

I would argue, however, what is the purpose of having an online session at all, in this case? Why not just create an asynchronous offering and send it to the participants-if all they are going to do is watch and listen?

The alternative, then, is to expect that your online learners will be active participants in the learning process. This greatly restricts the number of people you can "handle" in one session.  If you want interaction-both verbal and collaborative among the participants-it's very difficult to manage more than 14 participants in a live, online session. Think about a classroom-based training session. When you have 20 or 25 participants in that setting, do you really have a personal connection with each individual? No. Typically there are five or more participants who can remain inactive throughout the learning process because you simply cannot juggle interacting with that many people.

Now, consider that in the online environment you cannot see them or make personal connections with them. It's even easier for someone to stay in the background in the online session. So if you're really expecting people to be interactive and engaged with the learning process, with you the facilitator, and with their fellow participants, 14 is absolutely the maximum number of people you should put in an online learning environment.

Personally, when I'm teaching alone (that is to say, I do not have a technical producer or a co-facilitator in the online environment) my maximum number is eight. More than that and I simply cannot ensure that every participant is an active learner throughout the session.

Comments?