Silviu,
I agree, as long as the activities that are planned during the class sessions are productive, interesting, related to the topic, and positively contribute to the course objectives and overall purpose of the course. Great classess, the students will feel like "where did the time go?" This can also be the feeling experienced by the instructor. My classes are 4-hours each session, and I often feel like "this class was wonderful" as the result of planning and varying the activities.
Barry Westling
Our courses are 6 hours long. We used to concentrate lectures and labs so that the first part of the week was lecture the last part was lab (hands on). We’ve altered that set up recently and now each day has been divided up to include lecture, lab and discussion. Not necessarily in that order. I’ve noticed that it’s not only better for the students, it’s also better for the instructors.
Dave,
I think your change to daily mixture of lecture, discussion, and lab is a far better way for students to learn. Breaking up your 6-hours into digestible components seems would benefit better retention, and keep the class more engaged.
Barry Westling
I also have an 8 hour class. I have broken that class up though in order to break up the monotony. We have a test first off covering the previous week lecture, followed by an hour or two of lecture. They take a lunch then break off into lab groups. Half are in the lab while the other half has study time. Then they switch
Brian,
Segmenting long course material into digestible chunks is a sound idea. Even some classes that are only an hour in length can be segmented to enhance the students interest and make class a bit more memorable and enjoyable.
Barry Westling
