This paper reports on an investigation into how staff teaching in compressed courses can encourage student engagement and enhance student use of learning time, despite significant restraints of time as well as distance. Typically these courses (described here as units) are expected to have comparable learning outcomes to their full-semester counterparts and provide an opportunity for students to either retake failed units or to acquire credit for their chosen degrees in accelerated time. Organising teaching and learning through intensive modes of delivery may require different approaches to curriculum development and pedagogy compared to traditional unit planning and delivery, especially when the intensive delivery utilises online technologies. This paper explores strategies employed by successful intensive mode teachers in the development and delivery units for maximised student engagement. It concludes that many of these strategies are equally applicable in online and distance education regardless of the unit being intensive or otherwise.