Uncaught TypeError: Cannot read property ‘toLowerCase’ of undefined

When you call loadTeachers() on DOMReady the context of this will not be the #CourseSelect element.

You can fix this by triggering a change() event on the #CourseSelect element on load of the DOM:

$("#CourseSelect").change(loadTeachers).change(); // or .trigger('change');

Alternatively can use $.proxy to change the context the function runs under:

$("#CourseSelect").change(loadTeachers);
$.proxy(loadTeachers, $('#CourseSelect'))();

Or the vanilla JS equivalent of the above, bind():

$("#CourseSelect").change(loadTeachers);
loadTeachers.bind($('#CourseSelect'));