diff --git a/rul_datasets/utils.py b/rul_datasets/utils.py
index d88f5ae..233ffd6 100644
--- a/rul_datasets/utils.py
+++ b/rul_datasets/utils.py
@@ -60,7 +60,7 @@ def get_targets_from_file_paths(
     return targets
 
 
-def extract_windows(seq: np.ndarray, window_size: int) -> np.ndarray:
+def extract_windows(seq: np.ndarray, window_size: int, dilation: int = 1) -> np.ndarray:
     """
     Extract sliding windows from a sequence.
 
@@ -68,20 +68,27 @@ def extract_windows(seq: np.ndarray, window_size: int) -> np.ndarray:
     1` extracted windows. The resulting array has the shape [num_windows, window_size,
     num_channels].
 
+    If dilation is set to a value greater than one, the window will not contain
+    consecutive time steps. Instead, the time steps are spaced by the dilation value.
+    In this case, the number of extracted windows is `len(seq) - (window_size - 1) *
+    dilation`.
+
     Args:
         seq: sequence to extract windows from
         window_size: length of the sliding window
+        dilation: dilation of the sliding window
     Returns:
         array of sliding windows
     """
     if window_size > len(seq):
         raise ValueError(
-            f"Cannot extract windows of size {window_size} "
+            f"Cannot extract windows of size {window_size} with dilation {dilation}"
             f"from a sequence of length {len(seq)}."
         )
 
-    num_frames = seq.shape[0] - window_size + 1
-    window_idx = np.arange(window_size)[None, :] + np.arange(num_frames)[:, None]
+    num_frames = seq.shape[0] - (window_size - 1) * dilation
+    window_idx = np.arange(window_size)[None, :] * dilation
+    window_idx = window_idx + np.arange(num_frames)[:, None]
     windows = seq[window_idx]
 
     return windows
@@ -137,7 +144,15 @@ def to_tensor(
 
 
 def feature_to_tensor(features: np.ndarray, dtype: torch.dtype) -> torch.Tensor:
-    if len(features.shape) == 2:
-        return torch.tensor(features, dtype=dtype).permute(1, 0)
-    else:
-        return torch.tensor(features, dtype=dtype).permute(0, 2, 1)
+    """
+    Convert a numpy array to a torch tensor of `dtype` and swap the last dimensions.
+
+    The function assumes that the last dimension of the numpy array is the channel
+    dimension, and the second to last is the time dimension. All preceding dimensions
+    are considered to be batch dimensions.
+
+    Args:
+        features: numpy array to convert
+        dtype: dtype of the resulting tensor
+    """
+    return torch.transpose(torch.tensor(features, dtype=dtype), -1, -2)
diff --git a/tests/reader/test_ncmapss.py b/tests/reader/test_ncmapss.py
index 7f06605..9bfc618 100644
--- a/tests/reader/test_ncmapss.py
+++ b/tests/reader/test_ncmapss.py
@@ -36,11 +36,14 @@ def test_additional_hparams():
 def test_prepare_data(should_run, mocker):
     mocker.patch("os.path.exists", return_value=not should_run)
     mock_save_scaler = mocker.patch("rul_datasets.reader.ncmapss.scaling.save_scaler")
+    mock_download = mocker.patch("rul_datasets.reader.ncmapss._download_ncmapss")
 
     NCmapssReader(1).prepare_data()
     if should_run:
+        mock_download.assert_called_once()
         mock_save_scaler.assert_called_once()
     else:
+        mock_download.assert_not_called()
         mock_save_scaler.assert_not_called()
 
 
diff --git a/tests/test_utils.py b/tests/test_utils.py
index 3b2b5ff..f1aef27 100644
--- a/tests/test_utils.py
+++ b/tests/test_utils.py
@@ -54,25 +54,28 @@ def test_get_targets_from_file_paths(file_path_func):
 @pytest.mark.parametrize(
     "window_size", [1, 5, 10, pytest.param(11, marks=pytest.mark.xfail)]
 )
-def test_extract_windows(window_size):
-    inputs = np.arange(10)
-    windows = utils.extract_windows(inputs, window_size)
+@pytest.mark.parametrize("dilation", [1, 2, 3])
+def test_extract_windows(window_size, dilation):
+    inputs = np.arange(30)
+    windows = utils.extract_windows(inputs, window_size, dilation)
 
-    expected_num_windows = len(inputs) - window_size + 1
+    expected_num_windows = len(inputs) - (window_size - 1) * dilation
     for i in range(expected_num_windows):
-        expected_window = inputs[i : (i + window_size)]
+        expected_window = inputs[i : (i + window_size * dilation) : dilation]
         npt.assert_equal(windows[i], expected_window)
 
 
 @pytest.mark.parametrize("num_targets", [0, 1, 2])
-def test_to_tensor(num_targets):
-    features = [np.random.randn(10, 100, 2)]
+@pytest.mark.parametrize("num_batch_dims", [0, 1, 2, 3])
+def test_to_tensor(num_targets, num_batch_dims):
+    batch_dims = (10,) * num_batch_dims
+    features = [np.random.randn(*batch_dims, 100, 2)]
     targets = [[np.arange(10)]] * num_targets
 
     tensor_features, *tensor_targets = utils.to_tensor(features, *targets)
 
     assert isinstance(tensor_features, list)
-    assert tensor_features[0].shape == (10, 2, 100)
+    assert tensor_features[0].shape == (*batch_dims, 2, 100)
     assert tensor_features[0].dtype == torch.float32
 
     assert len(tensor_targets) == num_targets