A Review Of Time-Shortened Courses Across Disciplines

College Student Journal, June, 2000 by Eileen L. Daniel

Petrowsky (1996) found that students in a two-week macroeconomics course perceived it as stressful. The students also believed that they would have achieved better mastery of the subject matter in a traditional length course. Sakalys' (1995) study involving an intensive summer doctoral program in nursing also found that stress was a major concern.

While numerous studies have found that students seek out and prefer intensive courses, despite the stress and other negative attributes, many faculty have expressed concerns. Shapiro (as cited in Scott 1991)compared time-shortened and traditional instructor responses on two different questionnaires. One survey asked faculty to rate students on their level of motivation. The second questionnaire required instructors to determine whether or not class format affected their class preparation or students' ability to learn the material. According to the author, faculty rated students in intensive classes higher in motivation though they reported that time-shortened formats had a negative impact on learning. Tracey, Sedlacek, and Patterson (1980) surveyed faculty teaching during a time-shortened summer session at a large state research university. The authors' findings showed that the faculty did not perceive many differences between regular term and intense summer courses regarding teaching style and learning outcomes. The faculty did acknowledge several disadvantages associated with intense courses including faculty fatigue, inadequate time to properly prepare for courses, and students' inability to synthesize information. Faculty also tended to disapprove of courses lasting less than five weeks. O'Mara (1996) found that while nursing students in an eight week accelerated program were highly enthusiastic of the time savings, faculty complained about the work load.

Faculty surveyed during an interim semester claimed that they preferred these intense courses. The instructors believed that these courses allowed for more in-depth discussions and experiential activities (Allen, et al. 1982). Research by Smith (1988) concurred with Allen and colleagues. Smith found that intensive courses provided an excellent environment to combine theory with practice and that most faculty believed that material could adequately be presented in an intense format. Messina's (1996) study of weekend college classes indicated that the majority of the faculty surveyed would teach another courses in an intensive format. The faculty concluded that the benefits included comparable test scores and enhanced student-faculty interaction.

Time-shortened Courses Across Disciplines

Time-shortened courses have been offered in a variety of disciplines including education, business, mathematics, English, foreign languages and psychology. Researchers compared the test scores of three sections of a health psychology class with the same instructor, content, readings, contact hours, and exams. Two of the sections were taught during a ten-week quarter while the third was during a five-week summer session. The authors found no significant differences in achievement among the three groups that concurred with findings of a pilot study that they had conducted the previous year. They concluded that the intense course was as effective as the traditional quarter class related to student achievement (Kanun, Ziebarth and Abrahams, 1963).