“You can concentrate better on the topic and invest more time in it”: A case study evaluating the impact of immersive scheduling on students' academic achievement, learning, understanding, engagement, motivation and satisfaction.

Hendrik van der Sluis, Lasse Tausch-Nebel

Abstract


This case study explores the influence of immersive scheduling or block teaching introduced in the first semester to two cohorts of the first-year undergraduate Business Administration (BBA) programme at the Flensburg University of Applied Sciences in North Germany. Instead of the traditional scheduling of long-thin modules in parallel, the delivery of the BBA programme first semester was changed to short-fat modules in sequence. The two blocked modules were offered as a ‘layer’ alongside other traditionally scheduled modules. This study aims to evaluate the influence of layered-blocked scheduling on academic achievement, learning, understanding, engagement, motivation and satisfaction and clarify the different immersive scheduling arrangements in the literature.

The results of a mixed-method approach show that compared with previous cohorts, immersive scheduling enhanced students' achievement for the blocked modules. An anonymous questionnaire completed at the end of the block teaching indicates strong self-reported benefits in terms of learning, understanding, engagement, motivation and satisfaction. This is reflected in the qualitative responses, which additionally indicate students' support for immersive scheduling in the future. The paper concludes by discussing the findings and suggesting areas for further discussion and research.


Keywords


Immersive Scheduling; Block Teaching; Academic Achievement; Student Experience; Business Education

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DOI: https://doi.org/10.21100/compass.v16i2.1413

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Copyright (c) 2023 Hendrik van der Sluis, Lasse Tausch-Nebel

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