One of the currently challenges in university education is how to keep students focused on the lecture all over the duration of master classes. New generations of students, raised in the culture of immediacy of social networks, find it difficult to maintain their attention throughout an entire lecture in which no other alluring media elements are present. That challenge becomes even more difficult when lectures are of long duration (3 or 4 hours at a time).

Maritime and Coastal Engineering teaching at the University of Granada can be framed into that scenario, which subjects with 3-4 hours of consecutive master class sessions. An innovative teaching project has been implemented for the purpose, in which a combination of activities has been carried out focusing on maintaining the concentration of the students and thus making use of effective teaching hours at best. As a rule, lessons are split into a first part of short duration (between 30 and 45 minutes) in which the theoretical content of the subject is presented in the form of a master lecture. The rest of the time is then dedicated to an active learning activity in which the students put into practice or work on the content previously explained. The active learning activities carried out were: guided technical discussions, working on projects based on real issues, problem solving with advanced computer tools and laboratory practices.

After applying this methodology for at least one academic year, students have developed a high motivation on the contents, even requesting to attend extra courses focused on the complementary tools used in the second part of the lecture. The results have been very positive, with all students passing their courses in involved subjects with average marks of A and B.

Keywords: Long-duration session, active learning, motivation, attention.