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I'm researching the concept of the "compressed workweek" in academic organizations. Specifically, I need to identify colleges or universities that have adopted a two-day-per-week (MW, TTh) class schedule. I understand there may be some schools that have elected Wednesday as the day to not offer classes. The intent of the research is to identify the operational and strategic advantages/disadvantages rising from their experience. Operating costs, policy changes that may have been necessitated, community/faculty/student issues, possible affects on school culture, etc.

 

If you work for, or know of, any schools that have adopted such a class schedule please drop me an e-mail with the school's name and point of contact, if you have one. If you wish to add any information such as pros/cons, etc., feel free to add to your e-mail.

 

Thank you,

 

Frank Markham

Mesa State College

fmarkham@mesastate.edu

First of all, there is a adequate research to indicate that you only have the attention of students for 10-15 minutes -- so whether you are teaching in a 50 minute period or a three hour time slot, you had better do the work to prepare properly. That means understanding cognitive overload and how to overcome it and then preparing your lessons appropriately. That being said, if you have the three hour session, and if you prepare properly, and if you have well written learning objectives, then the opportunity to develop a learning experience is much higher.

-rr

----- Original Message -----
From: "Romie Littrell" <littrellaom@YAHOO.CO.NZ>
To: MG-ED-DV@AOMLISTS.PACE.EDU
Sent: Saturday, April 4, 2009 3:23:19 PM GMT -08:00 US/Canada Pacific
Subject: Re: Academic Compressed Classes

El -- I posted an earlier link regarding this material -- http://www.brainrules.net/attention and you would be wise to see some of the other "brain rules".

If you read Dr. Medina's work, you will see that he simply says that if you go more than 15 minutes without a break that you have probably lost the majority of your class. It simply means that no one can sustain an eight hour lecture and get a great deal out of it.

It means that as a teacher you do have a responsibility to be prepared when you come to class. A part of that responsibility is to ensure that the students in your class know what they are suppose to be learning, hence the reason for having learning objectives. You have a responsibility to have at least considered at when depth do students need to learn certain information (see bloom's taxonomy), and you have a responsibility to know and understand the dynamics of a classroom. Every class is different -- so what worked last term might not work as well or at all this term. That is your responsibility as a teacher.

I certainly do not mean to say that cognitive overload is the reason for ALL student inattentiveness, but if you are not aware of how it comes about and pejorative affect that if can have on learning and student than you are doing a disservice to both the students and yourself.

Do students have a responsibility -- sure they do. But as teachers we (teachers) set the example for behavior in the classroom and that means that we come prepared to teach. This absolutely means different sets of preparation depending on the course that is being taught and the level of students that are in class.

Nevertheless, if you lecture for 40 minutes without a break, as much as your students will try and follow you, you will lose 90 percent of them. This is not a fairy tale but is the result of pretty solid research.

-rr

----- Original Message -----
From: "Elyssebeth Leigh" <Elyssebeth.Leigh@UTS.EDU.AU>
To: MG-ED-DV@AOMLISTS.PACE.EDU
Sent: Sunday, April 5, 2009 3:19:00 PM GMT -08:00 US/Canada Pacific
Subject: Re: Academic Compressed Classes

To believe that 'you only have the attention of students for 15
minutes'  leads me to ask - why bother at all? There must be any number
of assumptions behind such an assertion -

    * That you are talking at them - hence they (like all of us) are
      only likely to be able to listen for 15 minutes at a stretch
    * That 'adequate research' has been done across all forms of
      teaching/learning environments - learners I work with have
      sustained attention   across an 8 hour stretch - when they are in
      charge of the work and focused on shaping - and reflecting on -
      their own learning
    * that 'attention' is something you can measure accurately 'in
      action' - i.e. while the session is on-going (if you assess in
      terms of what is recalled you are assessing recall capabilities
      not 'attention spans')
    * that 'cognitive overload' will account for al the factors of
      falling attention rates

The assertion that 'if you prepare properly, and if you have well
written learning objectives' - places all the responsibility on the
presenter. It suggests that the learning process operates 'as if' the
learner is simply a vessel into which you are pouring 'something [facts?
knowledge? data?] and you had better get it right, because there is no
known way 'they' will!
While we continue to regard 'teaching' as a 'pouring information into'
process we give learners little credit for their contribution to the
exchange. and encourage them to continue assuming that we ['the
teachers'] are the ones responsible for their entire development - thus
rendering them as self-perceived passive recipients  of 'stuff'!
It's not a great way to pursue our role as 'educators'.
EL  

rustyrae@comcast.net wrote:
>
> First of all, there is a adequate research to indicate that you only
> have the attention of students for 10-15 minutes -- so whether you are
> teaching in a 50 minute period or a three hour time slot, you had
> better do the work to prepare properly. That means understanding
> cognitive overload and how to overcome it and then preparing your
> lessons appropriately. That being said, if you have the three hour
> session, and if you prepare properly, and if you have well written
> learning objectives, then the opportunity to develop a learning
> experience is much higher.
>
> -rr
>
>  
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Romie Littrell" <littrellaom@YAHOO.CO.NZ>
> To: MG-ED-DV@AOMLISTS.PACE.EDU
> Sent: Saturday, April 4, 2009 3:23:19 PM GMT -08:00 US/Canada Pacific
> Subject: Re: Academic Compressed Classes
>
> I've worked at a Fachhochschule in Germany, a university in China, and
> a university in New Zealand where classes were taught in 3-hour
> sessions (with a break at 90 minutes). In all three countries I've
> also taught two 90-minuted sessions over two days. I've taught three
> 50-minute sessions in the USA.
>
> In New Zealand, where class attendance is not required by the
> university, I find that students who have high absence rates tend to
> meet the first session more frequently for two 90-minute sessions, For
> the 3-hour sessions, when they show up, the high-absence students tend
> to leave at the break. I used to prefer the three 50-minute classes,
> but have come to prefer the 3-hour sessions as facilitating class prep
> and enabling me to have longer continuous work sessions for my
> research writing.
>
> Do not accustom yourself to use big words for little matters.
>     -Samuel Johnson
>
> Romie F. Littrell, BA, MBA,PhD, FIAIR, An fánaí fiáin
> AUT Business School N.Z., romie.littrell@aut.ac.nz
> http://www.romielittrellpubs.homestead.com/
> http://www.crossculturalcentre.homestead.com/
> Facilitator, Leadership & Management in Sub-Sahara Africa Conferences
> Contents copyright Romie F. Littrell
>
> --- On *Sun, 5/4/09, Dundar Kocaoglu /<kocaoglu@ETM.PDX.EDU>/* wrote:
>
>     From: Dundar Kocaoglu <kocaoglu@ETM.PDX.EDU>
>     Subject: Re: Academic Compressed Classes
>     To: MG-ED-DV@AOMLISTS.PACE.EDU
>     Date: Sunday, 5 April, 2009, 4:52 AM
>
>     We offer our graduate courses in Engineering and Technology Management in the
>     College of Engineering once a week in 4-hour classes. It works extremely
>      well.
>     We have a great deal of interaction, case analyses and projects in addition to
>     the lectures. The 4-hour format allows time to fully develop, present and
>     discuss the subject matter every week. Once-a-week format gives time to the
>     students to prepare for the following lecture and to study the research
>     literature in the library during the week. It also helps the project teams to
>     meet and discuss their projects, develop their models and collect data prior to
>     the next class. Because our courses are very rigorous, the average time a
>     student spends for a course is about 16 hours a week (4-hour class session plus
>     12 hours outside the classroom). As a result, full-time students take two
>     courses per academic term. A few of them occasionally take three courses but it
>     is an exception rather than the rule.
>
>     Dundar Kocaoglu
>
>
>     ===========================================================
>
>
>     Dundar F.
>      Kocaoglu, PhD;  Fellow, IEEE
>     Professor and Chairman, Department of Engineering and Technology Management
>     and President and CEO, PICMET
>     Portland State University, Portland, Oregon, 97207-0751, USA
>
>     +1 503-725-4660 - office
>     +1 503-725-4667 - fax
>     http://www.etm.pdx.edu/  and  http://www.picmet.org/
>     ============================================================
>
>
>     -----Original Message-----
>     From: Management Education and Development Discussion
>     [mailto:MG-ED-DV@AOMLISTS.PACE.EDU] On Behalf Of Carolyn Fausnaugh
>     Sent: Saturday, April 04, 2009 8:49 AM
>     To: MG-ED-DV@AOMLISTS.PACE.EDU
>     Subject: Re: Academic Compressed Classes
>
>     The College of Business at Florida Institute of Technology offers its classes
>     on a MW and TR schedule.  Some of the classes through other Colleges at the
>     University continue on a MWF, TR schedule.
>      
>     Personally, I find the 2 day a week schedule fits teaching
>      better.  A 50 minute
>     period is not long enough to cover sufficient material.  The three day schedule
>     consumes more time getting class started and concluding.   If I were researching
>     the topic, I would study how many minutes of class are missed by absenteeism
>     under the 2 day system vs the 3 day system.  
>      
>     The Associate Dean at the COB is Dr. Alex Vamosi.  avamosi@fit.edu
>      
>     Carolyn J. Fausnaugh PhD, CPA
>     Asst Professor of Strategy & New Ventures
>     Florida Institute of Technology
>     Melbourne, Florida 32901
>     Phone:  321-674-7375; Fax:  321-674-8896
>     E-mail:  cfausnau@fit.edu
>
>     ________________________________
>
>     From: Management Education and Development Discussion on behalf of Frank
>     Markham
>     Sent: Fri 4/3/2009 9:30 PM
>     To: MG-ED-DV@AOMLISTS.PACE.EDU
>     Subject: Academic Compressed Classes
>
>
>     I'm researching the concept of the "compressed workweek" in
>     academic organizations. Specifically, I
>      need to identify colleges or
>     universities that have adopted a two-day-per-week (MW, TTh) class schedule. I
>     understand there may be some schools that have elected Wednesday as the day to
>     not offer classes. The intent of the research is to identify the operational and
>     strategic advantages/disadvantages rising from their experience. Operating
>     costs, policy changes that may have been necessitated, community/faculty/student
>     issues, possible affects on school culture, etc.
>      
>     If you work for, or know of, any schools that have adopted such a class
>     schedule please drop me an e-mail with the school's name and point of
>     contact, if you have one. If you wish to add any information such as pros/cons,
>     etc., feel free to add to your e-mail.
>      
>     Thank you,
>      
>     Frank Markham
>     Mesa State College
>     fmarkham@mesastate.edu
>              
>
>

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