By: Rita Daniels, Associate Professor, Communication Studies, WWU
Holding office hours is a typical university requirement for instructors. They allow students to receive additional support for course content, be motivated to do better, receive professional advice, get research opportunities, and build relationships with instructors to enrich the collegiate experience. However, a 2017 study concluded that many college students negatively perceive office hours. Participants reported using office hours during an emergency and think that attending office hours inconveniences the instructor unless you have a well-established relationship with the instructor. They also noted that office hours are not worth the effort when they could email the instructor. Are these perceptions accurate? Instructors must reclaim the value of office hours if office hours are required and fulfilled. Here are some tips for the reclaiming exercise based on research on students’ perceptions and ineffective use of office hours.
Proactively promote the value of office hours in class
As part of your course introduction to students, engage students in a conversation about the benefits of attending office hours. These benefits include an informal conversation about job prospects, further education, instructor-student collaborations on research, and other relevant opportunities. Students could benefit from long-term relationships and fulfillment beyond receiving help with course content and degree completion. Do you have an office hours success story? Share your experience with past students’ successful use of office hours to motivate students and imprint in their minds the benefit of attending office hours, even not just for course-related issues.
Provide options for office hours meetings
The general perception about attending office hours may be a one-on-one session with the instructor. For some students, one-on-one meetings with the instructor, whether or not they have subject-related questions, may appear daunting or relatively unfamiliar from a cultural standpoint. Let students know that they can attend office hours individually or in groups. While you may provide a format for attending office hours such as in-person, Zoom, or Teams meetings, consider throwing the invitation to students to suggest meeting formats. These formats should be within professional and institutional guidelines. There should be no office hours meetings in instructors’ homes, but if students prefer Zoom meetings over Teams, they have to know your willingness to accommodate them without inconveniencing you. Even though instructors select their convenient times for office hours, you can promote and welcome appointments outside of regular office hours times. Please include this information on the syllabus, post it outside your door, and verbalize them.
Require at least one office hours attendance
To further encourage students to attend office hours, consider making it a requirement for students to attend at least once in the quarter. Let students know that their office hours attendance should not be solely course-related. Open up the content for office hours meetings to be anything related to their successful completion of your course and set clear boundaries. Have relevant resources to share with students who present academic or emotional troubles beyond your expertise or instructor’s responsibility. The WWU Office of Student Life is an excellent resource to have handy for student referrals. Keep track of students’ attendance during office hours to remind students who are yet to attend office hours mid-quarter of your office hours requirement.
Consider scheduling office hours appointments during one or two class meeting periods
Still, there are students who, for one reason or the other, may not have convenient times to meet you outside office hours times. Scheduling office hours during a class period can be beneficial in meeting these students’ needs. You may provide a sign-up sheet for half of the time and welcome walk-ins for the remaining time. Depending on students’ responses, you may need to adopt one strategy or create more such opportunities.
Invite students to office hours
Aside from giving written or verbal feedback to students on their work or in class, consider inviting students to attend office hours to receive that feedback. It would help if you also invited non-performing students to attend office hours to engage them in conversations about their performance. Given that their meeting is a request from you, it may dispel the misconception of your inconvenience in offering additional support. However, we need to be mindful of not sending the wrong message about such invitations being punitive by centering the requested visit on praise and constructive criticism. A follow-up with students on issues raised during office hours is helpful for the instructor to receive feedback and for students to demystify inaccurate perceptions about office hours.
See also:
- Making Your Office Hours Accessible – Debi Hanuscin, WWU
- Holding office hours (Chapter 44: 369-373) – Tools for Teaching by Barbara Gross Davis
- Making the most of office hours – Stanford University
- Office hours: 6 realities – The Harvard Gazette
- Putting in the hours – The Chronicle of Higher Education
- Tips for effective office hours – Duquesne University
Image Attributions: Nhor from the Noun Project (CC-BY)