Estimated reading time: 3 minutes

Office hours are an important part of any course, and provide students the opportunity to ask questions and get to know their instructor. As teaching and learning have transitioned online, it is challenging to determine the best format for online office hours for both students and instructors. If you think you and your students could benefit from changing up the student hours format over the rest of the semester, try one or more of the following suggestions.

Hold “open student hours” on Zoom and schedule other tasks for when there are no attendees

Some students really appreciate having a dedicated time each week when they know they can “drop-in” to talk with their instructor, so holding “open student hours” online can still be an effective way to make yourself available to students. One way to show hospitality and care during such open student hours while still conserving your time if no students are present is to set a zoom background with a welcome message. For example, share a slide (not your whole screen) with a picture of yourself and text that reads “Welcome to student hours! Please say hello so I know you are here and we can get started!” This way, you can work on other tasks and pause what you are doing if a student comes to office hours. You can also adjust your Zoom settings to play a sound when a new person enters a Zoom meeting waiting room, which will alert you to their presence. 

Let students make their own appointments using an automatic scheduling tool 

If you are struggling to keep up with all of the requests for one-on-one meetings, try a scheduling tool like Calendly or Appointlet. Both tools offer free versions in which you can offer meeting slots at time intervals of your choosing (e.g. 15 minutes, 30 minutes). Students simply follow a link, and pick a slot that works with their schedule. You can distribute the meeting booking link to students using your personal “Zoom room” as the meeting location, so you won’t need to arrange a new Zoom link for each appointment. Using these tools cuts down on the amount of email back and forth needed to find a mutually convenient time, and allows instructors to make “office hours” available multiple times throughout the week, but still recover that time for other tasks if no students happen to sign up. 

Try a “chat-based” office hour

Do you think your students would prefer being able to ask questions using a chat-based tool rather than Zoom or email? You can schedule office hours one or more times per week when you will be available to talk to students using the Canvas chat feature. Like with Zoom office hours, you can turn on audio alerts to let you know when a new message comes in. The chat feature will also indicate which students are online, so you can greet them individually or as a group in the event that students do not immediately start asking questions.

Whatever you decide, set clear expectations

Whether you are using one of the above strategies or a different one, make sure that students know what to expect when they attend your office hours. For example, if student hours are public and communal (anyone can come into the Zoom room), let students know that the space will not be private. If you offer short, private appointments back-to-back, make sure students know that you won’t be able to spend longer than their assigned time with them. Some students may be nervous to meet with instructors one-on-one, so let them know if they are free to bring a friend or classmate with them to the appointment or session. All of these details will help students make the most of their office hours visit and (hopefully) feel energized to return.

Would you like to discuss any of these office hours ideas further? Connect with an instructional designer!

Photo by Eric Rothermel on Unsplash

Reading time estimation from https://niram.org/read/

Sarah Silverman is an Instructional Designer in the Hub for Teaching and Learning Resources at the University of Michigan – Dearborn. You can read more about Sarah on her author page.