If you’re spending more than a few months on a topic you might be doing it wrong. I find that following a slightly stressful fast-paced schedule is actually kind of important for effective learning.
I'm working through a similar course with friends. We take two hours a week, and ocasionally do homework. We're about halfway since we started early this year. I feel its fine, no need to rush. The upside of taking it slow is that it stays with you for longer, I think. If you rush it and find no immediate application afterwards, you risk forgetting everything.
Long term retention requires spaced repetition of course. But I think the stressful pace does help not get bogged down on a first pass of the material.
It's impossible to cover everything about a topic in a short amount of time, but when you try, you at least develop a map of the terrain.