Student online meeting no-shows

[Katrina Gulliver]

I've had students not show up in the past for advisee meetings etc (in person), but nothing like the no-show rate I seem to have for zoom. Obviously I haven't had to make the effort to get to the office (if I'm doing them from home), but it seems really weird - and these are all meetings that the students themselves requested. Is anyone else finding this?

[Caracal]

I've had students not show up in the past for advisee meetings etc (in person), but nothing like the no-show rate I seem to have for zoom. Obviously I haven't had to make the effort to get to the office (if I'm doing them from home), but it seems really weird - and these are all meetings that the students themselves requested. Is anyone else finding this?

I completely forgot a meeting with a student when various things with my day went haywire so it makes sense to me. I find it easier to organize my day when I'm actually moving around in physical space. When I'm just sitting in my house all day, everything runs together and it can be harder to remember stuff.

[fishbrains]

I've had students not show up in the past for advisee meetings etc (in person), but nothing like the no-show rate I seem to have for zoom. Obviously I haven't had to make the effort to get to the office (if I'm doing them from home), but it seems really weird - and these are all meetings that the students themselves requested. Is anyone else finding this?

I completely forgot a meeting with a student when various things with my day went haywire so it makes sense to me. I find it easier to organize my day when I'm actually moving around in physical space. When I'm just sitting in my house all day, everything runs together and it can be harder to remember stuff.

+1. I have a large whiteboard with meeting times written on it and next to the board is a clock--both right in front of me on the wall. I don't forget many meetings, but every once in a while I look up at the board and go, "Oh, sh*t!" and send my apologies.

I'm wondering how much of this comes from how I dress. For some reason, working at my house in shorts and flipflops doesn't help me remember when I have meetings. :)

[Caracal]

I've had students not show up in the past for advisee meetings etc (in person), but nothing like the no-show rate I seem to have for zoom. Obviously I haven't had to make the effort to get to the office (if I'm doing them from home), but it seems really weird - and these are all meetings that the students themselves requested. Is anyone else finding this?

I completely forgot a meeting with a student when various things with my day went haywire so it makes sense to me. I find it easier to organize my day when I'm actually moving around in physical space. When I'm just sitting in my house all day, everything runs together and it can be harder to remember stuff.

+1. I have a large whiteboard with meeting times written on it and next to the board is a clock--both right in front of me on the wall. I don't forget many meetings, but every once in a while I look up at the board and go, "Oh, sh*t!" and send my apologies.

Yeah, back in the before times I scheduled meetings for times when I knew I'd be in my office. I didn't actually have to remember the meeting, I just needed to not wander off anywhere. Usually if I thought about leaving my office for some reason, I'd then remember that a student was supposed to come by.

[Puget]

Generally, most students have been showing up for their meetings, perhaps because I use an appointment calendar is it is automatically added to their google calendar as well.

For those of you forgetting meetings-- calendar alarms are your friend ;)

[nonsensical]

We discussed on another thread having office hours where people could drop by without an appointment, and only scheduling meetings outside of that time for people who have another class during the entire block (I try to avoid this by scheduling my office hours so they overlap part of two different blocks of courses, so students would have to have back-to-back classes to miss the entire block). This likely won't work if you are at a teaching school, but at a research institution setting up something like this could prevent you from spending your time waiting for people who don't show up and potentially rescheduling multiple times. Another option could be to schedule meetings for the day after the student requested them, as opposed to further in the future, so that they're potentially less likely to forget.

[Katrina Gulliver]

I've heard of some people having a zoom meeting "open" over a long window, and students can drop in any time (I haven't tried this, sounds dicey to me....).

[mamselle]

If you have your own account, you can do that, no issues.

I have a couple of music students who have their lessons as soon as they get home from school--which can vary.

I open the meeting, set the window so I can see the announcement when they log in, and work on something else until they arrive.

If you're using free-Zoom, it will cut you off after, what, 40 min., I think? But if you have an account, you just keep it open.

M.

[Katrina Gulliver]

If you have your own account, you can do that, no issues.

I have a couple of music students who have their lessons as soon as they get home from school--which can vary.

I open the meeting, set the window so I can see the announcement when they log in, and work on something else until they arrive.

That's the thing though - gotta be paying attention to the screen in case someone shows? I found (in pre-pandemic times) that advisees didn't show to a drop-in session, they would show if I summoned them to a specific appointment.

(As for the forgetting appointments issue - I have alerts popping up on my computer and phone 15 minutes before anything, so at least I can manage that).

[mamselle]

Yes, I'm usually prepping something that keeps me online at that time, so it's a win-win.

Also, an added prompt can be set on Zoom that will come to the top of whatever files you have up onscreen.

M.

[Harlow2]

If your uni has webex it sends email reminders to all participants 10 minutes prior. Very helpful

[saffie]

There's also a sound notification that can be set on Zoom to ring when someone joins.

[mythbuster]

I use the open Zoom window approach for my office hours. I open the meeting, turn off my video, and turn on the waiting room and "doorbell" sound notification when someone arrives, Then I minimize the screen and go back to working on other things. When the doorbell chimes, I pop up the window, turn on my video, smile, and let the student in to the session. The one thing to be aware of is that Zoom meetings will close automatically after 40 minutes of inactivity- so you might need to reload if you had an office hour block longer than an hour.