Get Your Students Hired
I like to multi-task during my office hours. I especially like to get all of my grading done as well as provide some real-time feedback to students who I see are online during my office hours.
Adib Shakir
I agree having your instructors available to students (online) during office hours helps to ease the tension of them feeling all alone in virtual cyberspace.
Adib Shakir
Yes, it is absolutely possible. I host 4 hrs a weeks of office hours and I am at my computer available for students. I find it very helpful because I get quite a few students who visit me during this time weekly.
Adib Shakir
I would think it would be easier to set and meet office hour requirements in a synchronous classroom setting. Everyone comes to class at the same time and questions could be answered then. In an aynchronous setting learners might be in need at different times and instructor office hours might need to be adjusted or the instructor would have to make sure that it was a policy to get back with a learner's question wihin 24 hours.
Byron,
Good points. In my experience office hours generally see low use, I would just prefer a responsive faculty who can set appointments as needed.
Best,
Jon
Yes you can set office hours so that students can email you or call you. Sometimes a problem that comes with e-learning is that the learner may be in a different time zone. So maybe when they have time to call or email the office is closed and they cannot reach their Instructor.
I agree. I find that it is very important to set office hours and stand by them. Also to be consistent with the times for the chats. It helps to maintain good communication with the students...
Of course, this is a great time for us as instructors to be able to work with students the need a little more of our time.
Re: on-ground classes and office hours, I think it depends upon our teaching workload and the student population; we have too many that take us for granted. You should see the surprised look on their faces when we tell them that we are unavailable certain days and times because our work is not 24/7. Many students understand, but unfortunately, I feel we at times are made to focus on those students who honestly should not be in our program to begin with, and we are made to feel as if we have "to bend over backwards" for these people and jump when they need us. They will not succeed in the "real world" and I feel if we were to make them stick to boundaries (in this case to only come see us when we have office hours and only then) then
they may become a little more self-sufficient. The more hand-holding we do, the worse it gets.
In an online setting, there is no knocking on the door after hours and having to let them in; students know that if they want to "speak" to an instructor they will have to do so at the designated times, otherwise they will have to wait until the next session. If they do not contact us during the designated "office" hours, tey have only themselves to blame.
Yes office hours can be challenging, when I was an adjunct instructor office hours were not a requirement, as a result, my students could not get my assistants with developing their (course content) skills, so their challenges could not be worked on until the next class and this affected the students’ skills. Yet when I have been full-time faculty, were office hours were a requirement, I did find that this availability did help students, and the students that took advantage of this, their skills did improve. However I do need to mention this realut was heavily weighed on the types of classes I was teaching and the student population at the time. Yes students need to become more independent & realize we are not there 24-7 --yes we have a life outside our jobs teaching
Julia,
Great point - office hours are nice, but may be less than helpful since students do schedule their work around their own schedules.
Jon
I think this is one of the hardest things for an instructor is the office hours; perhaps it doesn't happen at every campus, but at ours we have office hours posted, however, that is when students "don't" seem to come and seek us out if they have questions or problems. They will come to us when we are in a class and then want us to jump to assist them. As an online instructor, I think it is easier to set those hours and only those hours as students know (at least they should) that ones does not sit in front of a computer 24/7. When we are on campus, they seem to think ALL of our time belongs to them.
The office hours can act as a work time for you as well, when not answering questions and helping students, in the down time work on lesson plans or grading assignments, making tests, it allows you to have a more structured and exact time to work on the class as well.
Hi Jerry! Thanks for your participation in the discussion forum and for your comments.
Especially in the virtual environment, set office hours are important for both the student and the instructor, particularly since technology can create an "immediately accessible" environment in our online courses.
Set hours, geared to both students' and instructors' schedules help to manage expectations of availability across the board.
Jay Hollowell
EL101 Facilitator
Yes, setting office hours are very important. Instructors need to set aside time for students to communicate with them. Instructor availability plays a big role in student retention.