21st century office hours?

[science.expat]

My university wants to improve face to face to consultation with students as there's a view that academics are too remote and don't interact enough with students. Setting aside Covid, which at least currently is less of an issue here in Australia, I'd really appreciate some advice from the forumites.

One view is that we should (re)introduce 'office hours' and I think this is meant as academics being physically present at set times and days. In my experience, this didn't work 20 years ago and now we have irregular teaching schedules, students who work, and academics in open plan spaces that may not be accessible to students. Despite these changes in reality, the office hours model appeals to some senior leaders from a traditional background.

My question is how do we best enable face to face consultation with students in a modern world? For instance, how can we best use technology to schedule these consultations, and to what extent are video meetings a reasonable substitute? More generally, what do 'office hours' look like in 2021 and in the next few years?

Many thanks in advance for your ideas.

SE

[mamselle]

...as there's a view that academics are too remote and don't interact enough with students.

But--how else would you know they were academics?

   <...runs away...>

M.

[downer]

Most of my experience is that very few students are interested in office hours.

The main places I hear office hours being active are at smallish liberal arts colleges where everyone lives in the same town, or maybe some bigger universities with large student populations.

Some profs require students to come to office hours for tutoring. That might work well for areas where routine tutoring is appropriate.

Most of the interactions I have had in office hours in the past could be done just as well by email, messaging, or Zoom.

[Morden]

During non-COVID times, I usually have in-person office hours; very few students use them. It's much more likely that they will email their questions, or if they want to meet, email to set up an appointment at a time convenient for them. (I work at a commuter campus, so students are typically only there for their classes)

[Larimar]

During non-COVID times, I usually have in-person office hours; very few students use them. It's much more likely that they will email their questions, or if they want to meet, email to set up an appointment at a time convenient for them. (I work at a commuter campus, so students are typically only there for their classes)

Ditto here.

[dr_evil]

During non-COVID times, I usually have in-person office hours; very few students use them. It's much more likely that they will email their questions, or if they want to meet, email to set up an appointment at a time convenient for them. (I work at a commuter campus, so students are typically only there for their classes)

This is my experience as well.  The main time that students seem to visit, either by appointment or dropping by my scheduled hours, is when a test or quiz is approaching or an assignment is due (and someone put off doing it until the last minute). Currently, we have been allowed to have a mix of scheduled and unscheduled (by appointment) office hours, which I think is the best of both worlds.

[Ruralguy]

About half of my upper level students use office hours at least a little bit (and some are frequent flyers). Almost no lower level students in non-majors course use them, though that's not universally true over all such courses.

Office hours are mandated in our Handbook, though its widely accepted that we don't have to literally be in our office. Consultations can be held in cafes, lab rooms, front porch of one's house (although we have been told to avoid having students at our houses anyway). We are expected to have f2f office hours even during covid, though if we ask for a health exemption, we can get one from the Dean.

[jerseyjay]

My university requires 5 hours of office hours per week for full-time faculty. In the past, a good chunk of these office hours were taken up with advising majors. Now majors are not required to get advising before registering for classes, and almost nobody comes to my office hours. Before Covid, when I taught an online course I would often give students extra credit to stop by my office and say hello, and maybe a quarter of students did it. (I find it easier to have relationships with people I have actually met.)

Some colleagues dedicate most of a day for office hours (say, 10-4, with an hour for lunch). I prefer to do them before classes, spacing them out over two or three days.

Most of my office hours are spent cleaning my office, grading and preparing for class, or socializing with colleagues. In general, I think that professors should be available for students to consult about their work. However, very rarely does a student show up.

We have just returned to the classroom for the first time since 2020, so we have office hours again. I am not sure I feel happy about meeting with somebody in a small office, but, well, nobody has come yet this semester. I might make some of my office hours via Zoom

[Caracal]

I suppose office hours are kind of a relict. The reason they existed was because it was the simplest way professors could be accessible to students outside of class. The easier it has gotten to get in touch with people, the more many students feel like "dropping in" is intrusive and weird even if it is explicitly encouraged. Even the people I know who teach at SLACs where students are constantly meeting with them, have mostly scheduled meetings.

Probably it is silly to require office hours. If schools want to make sure instructors are available they should just tell them they need to make sure they can meet with students for a certain number of hours. If nobody makes an appointment, you don't need to be there.

All that said, I do think there's something that's been lost. I still have the occasional student who comes by office hours just because they wanted to talk to me about the reading before class, or introduce themselves, or just chat for a second and I almost always like these kinds of interactions and wish I had more of them.

It also would be kind of nice if people had to come by office hours to ask the sort of quick questions I get deluged with via email. I find it far more exhausting to have to keep answering questions at various random times than I do when students ask them after class and I wouldn't really mind students just wandering by to ask them.

[Puget]

Since I started having students book 15 min. slots during office hours (with the option to drop in if no one has booked the slot), attendance has gone up. You might intuitively think it would be the opposite but we know people are more likely to do things when there is a set appointment to do so. Between classes and advisees my office hours have actually been pretty booked through the first part of the semester-- it will drop off in a bit, then pick up again before and after exams and before spring registration (for advisees). I do actively encourage them to come and make it clear this is their time, not an intrusion.

[mamselle]

Reading the title itself for a moment, I had a wry thought

By the end of the 21st c., will we need to specify what planet as well as campus, building, and room number?

And will the potential thrill of greater travel increase or decrease attendance in office hours?

M.

[ciao_yall]

Since I am not on campus I stopped having virtual office hours. Students check in with me before or after class, or when they can make an appointment. They also email with questions and sometimes we end up talking.

Sitting on Zoom waiting for students to not show up sounds like torture.

[Wahoo Redux]

"Office hours" are antiquated and unnecessary.

During my first attempt at college it was often necessary to run up to a faculty member's office to see if they were in or turn in a late paper.  We students very seldom did this, and the halls were slightly less quiet than they are today.  Still, we occasionally discussed things with faculty in their offices.

Not anymore.

Students ask questions by email or they catch you after class.  If they want to meet, they email and ask for a time.

We have required "office hours," but the administration is wise and kind enough to allow us to do so virtually.  Not a single Zoom jingle this year, and maybe one or two all of last year.

Time to do away with the concept.  But academia is a glacier, and new ideas are generally denounced by all the progressive and creative thinkers in the academy.

[Ruralguy]

Its school dependent for sure, and highly individual course dependent within the school. At my school, students actively complain if they cant find a professor during stated office hours and were rejected for an appointment outside of those hours. But professors are rarely individually punished for this. In fact, if ignoring students gets you a big book or paper, you are highly praised for that at my school, even though we are a so-so SLAC. So, though spending time with students can get you rewarded in evals which are a big part of reviews, its also pretty likely that they won't get you much, and that beyond being "very good" with students in class, you should spend time doing other things.

[Caracal]

Since I am not on campus I stopped having virtual office hours. Students check in with me before or after class, or when they can make an appointment. They also email with questions and sometimes we end up talking.

Sitting on Zoom waiting for students to not show up sounds like torture.

Seems fine to me. Turn on the entry sound in the waiting room and do something else on the computer, but I can see how we could feel differently about stuff like this. I'm on my computer a lot anyway, so its not something I would find hard.