An analysis of student and faculty attitudes to intensive teaching

The Graduate School of Management at Macquarie University has been offering post-graduate courses by an intensive (five day), or ‘block’ format, and also by a more traditional weekly format for over ten years. The format is so successful that it has been copied by most business schools in Australia for their local and/or offshore programs. However block teaching has received very little attention in the academic literature. This paper reviews the research findings on intensive teaching, analyses student and staff reactions to block teaching, and identifies perceived advantages and disadvantages of the format. Implications for block scheduling and for actions to address perceived disadvantages of the block method are addressed.