Keeping Office Hours “Real” in the Facebook Age

Keeping Office Hours “Real” in the  Facebook Age

by Kiren Dosanjh Zucker

Our students email us questions, send us “instant messages,” and even “friend” us on Facebook.  Yet the same student who invites us to join their social network might not consider visiting our office hours. Here are a few suggestions for keeping office hours “real” in a time when we are a “click away” from our students.

• Include office hours in “class participation.”

If “class participation” is evaluated as part of the final grade, then consider allowing students to “participate” via office discussions.  This will create an incentive to use office hours and offer those students who are uncomfortable speaking in class an opportunity to share their insights. Encourage students who visit your office hours to raise in class what they shared with you in the office visit: having spoken with you first, shy students might feel more confident about speaking in class. 

In the course syllabus, offer examples of an office discussion that would be considered “participation” – e.g. sharing a relevant experience, explaining an opinion formed or challenged by the course, or discussing a topical current event. Expressly exclude students’ queries regarding grades, assignment requirements, exam formats, etc.  from this definition.

• Schedule “office discussions” at the beginning of the semester.

Pose a directed question to students in class that will be the topic for these office visits – such as “what are your career goals?” or “what helps you learn?” Circulate sign-up sheets in class listing your office hours and “otherwise available” hours broken into increments – e.g. ten minutes.  For larger classes, allowing several students to visit with you at the same time is an option.  Without identifying any individual student, share in class what you have learned from these office discussions: students will know you are sincerely seeking to engage them and encourage communication.

• On a weekly basis, circulate office hour and “appointment only” sign up sheets in class.  

Include in the sign-up sheet not only your office hours but the times you are available for an appointment that upcoming week.  The act of circulating such sign-up sheets reminds students of office hours, and supports their exercise of this option to reach you. 

• Require office visits on a “rolling deadline.”

Requiring each student to visit office hours in a large or “larger” class seems a daunting if not impracticable undertaking. Connecting the required office visit to an assignment with a “rolling deadline” might be the answer.  For example, you might create a discussion question for each chapter, topic, or module, and ask students to select one such question during the semester to which they will submit a written response by a certain date.  Students must then schedule a subsequent office visit with you to discuss their written response.  Have rolling deadlines to avoid a “pile-up” – for example, students selecting the Module 3 discussion question must submit their response on or by Class Session Eight and discuss their response with you in your office within the following two weeks. 

Make the discussion questions experiential or opinions-based to enhance the dialogue during the office visit.  For example:

• Would you have handled a workplace issue you have personally faced differently because of what you have learned in this module?  Why or why not? 
• Have you personally observed or experienced an application of the theory presented in this chapter? Explain.
• Did  you agree or disagree with a viewpoint expressed in class discussion on this topic?  Explain.

Consider making these writing assignments “pass/fail” to avoid the office visit devolving into an informal grade appeal. 

• Continue “e-conversations” in office hours.

Just as email should not replace office hours, neither should students’ emailed questions be ignored or dismissed.  Emailed responses can be used to promote office hours. In concluding your response to the student’s emailed question, invite students to visit office hours or to make an appointment if they wish to discuss their questions further. 

 To communicate to students that this offer is sincere and not intended to subtly discourage their questions, add a related question as you might in answering a student’s question in class which you will discuss with them when they visit your office.  If relevant, ask them to bring their e.g. homework assignments, paper draft, etc. with them to your office as well. Of course, if the emailed question is “so when is the paper due again?” then this strategy would not work.

• Use positive peer pressure.

If a student poses an interesting question or raises a pertinent point in an office hour visit, then share it in the next class meeting. For example, “I was asked a very interesting question during office hours the other day…”.  Letting students know that their classmates are utilizing office hours will encourage them to do the same.

The Course Syllabus: Contract, Culture, and Compass

This post is co-authored with Profs. Lori Baker-Schena (Journalism) and Mira Pak (Secondary Education), and is based on our recent Teaching 101 workshop for new CSUN faculty.  Profs. Nathan Durdella (Educational Leadership & Policy Studies) and Jose Paez (Social Work) contributed to the January 14, 2010 postscript.  Thanks to all!

The Course Syllabus: Contract, Culture, and Compass

A course syllabus serves several purposes.  First, it represents a contract between instructor and students.  Second, it helps to establish the culture of a class, whether the course is held online or in a traditional classroom.  Third, it offers a compass to guidestudents toward achievement of the course’s learning objectives.

 Contract

  Make the path to success in your class transparent to students; Articulate expectations, but do not “waive your discretion”

• State the goals and purpose of the course
• Delineate the requirements for successful completion of the class
• Identify the responsibilities of each “party” (students and instructor)
• Make the rules of conduct, grading standards, and course requirements reasonable. 
• In stating rules, standards, and requirements, use words and phrases such as “may” or “up to and including” that will allow you to exercise your discretion in individual cases

 Culture

Create the kind of learning experience you want students to have 

• Address the individual student in the course syllabus. Use the second person rather than the third person (e.g. “you are expected to….” Rather than “students are expected to”).
• Include yourself in the syllabus. Using the first person rather than the third person (e.g. “I” instead of “the instructor”) subtly communicates your enthusiasm and engagement in teaching this course. 
• Set forth the norms of conduct you expect students to follow in class.  For example, consider including a “professionalism policy” that addresses such issues as cell phone usage in class, respect for others’ opinions, etc. Describe the “core values” of the class, and how they are reflected in the course’s requirements and expectations  (e.g. teamwork, respect, honesty, truth, etc.).
• Include an “academic honesty policy” that addresses such issues as plagiarism with clearly communicated rules and expectations, and the consequences for violation.  ”Incorporate by reference”  the University’s “Academic Dishonesty” policy published in the current University Catalog.
• Consider what your course syllabus explicitly or implicitly communicates about you, your subject, and your teaching approach.  For example, do students know how, when, and where to contact you? 

 Compass 

Align your course requirements to students’ learning outcomes

• Clearly state the expected learning outcomes of the course. 
• Review the course’s activities, readings, assignments, exams, etc.  How are they aligned with the learning outcomes?   
• Determine how students’ successful achievement of each of the learning outcomes is addressed, supported, and assessed during the course.

January 14, 2010 Postcript:  The Course Syllabus in Action

As suggested by the [authors], I replaced all of the instances where I used the term “student” to “you” in my syllabi.  For example, instead of “Students will submit assignments to a colleague in class for peer review,” the statement now read: “You will submit assignments to a colleague in class for peer review.”  In this way, we are engaged in a conversation—represented by the use of the second person in the syllabus—about the course.  I think that I ended up replacing about 25 instances of “students” with “you.”  This seemingly small revision changed the entire tone of the syllabus and prepared me to make more meaningful changes that will substantively renegotiate my teacher role and invite students to participate in constructing the educational experience.   One of my goals for the spring term is to develop guidelines for a discussion on one or two course policies.

- contributed by Nathan Durdella, Educational Leadership & Policy Studies

Here is the language I used in my syllabus… :

Classroom attendance is mandatory. You are expected to arrive on time. If you cannot attend class or know that you will be arriving late, you MUST call or email me prior to the start of the class to obtain an “excused absence.” In the event of a serious illness, a physician’s statement is required. Any unexcused absences will negatively impact your participation grade, as will excessive excused absences (2 or more).

Participation in class is an important part of your development as a social worker. Comments and questions are encouraged as they will enhance the learning process for all.

Professionalism and courteous conduct contributes to class while discourteous conduct detracts from it. Courteous conduct includes turning off cell phones and other technological devices before class, not eating in class, and showing respect for others’ points of view and contributions.  

-contributed by Jose Paez, Social Work

The Last Day of Class: Beginning at the End

Final Examination Review. Term Project Presentations. Last minute questions. These are some common topics for the last day of class that underscore the ending of the course.   But if college graduations are called “commencements,” can we redefine the last day of class as a beginning? 

We hope that our students will carry with them what they have learned, and apply, integrate, and develop this knowledge well  beyond the final exam or term project. In this sense, the ending of the course is, to paraphrase T.S. Eliot,  where students start from.  The last day of class offers you a chance to glimpse into your students’ future and foresee the lasting impact of your teaching.

Below are some examples of questions you might pose on the last day of class, or as an assignment prior to that session, partly based on my past courses and greatly inspired by the discussion at the April 23 Faculty Development workshop, “Just-in-Time Teaching: A MERLOT ELIXR Digital Case Story.”  (Please visit: http://elixr.merlot.org/).  Thanks to all participants, especially Karen Savage (Geological Sciences).

Some questions will fit your course better than others,  or you might develop your own queries to mark the “beginning at the end” of the course.  Formats might also vary: students may be asked to write their responses individually and then share them in pairs or in small groups, or responses might be submitted online, perhaps using a Web 2.0 technology such as Wiki. 

Whatever the format, such exercises at the end of a course might suspend, even for a moment, students’ focus on final grades. In that moment, we can quietly celebrate education as more than an end in itself, and remind our students and ourselves that learning should never end. 

• What did you expect to learn in this course?  Did you learn it?
• Have you changed your opinions or views as a result of this course? Why or why not?
• Did your view of [topic/discipline] change as a result of this course?  Why or why not?
• Complete the following sentences: One thing I was surprised to learn in this course is:  … .  I was surprised to learn this because … .
• If someone asked you, “what did you learn in [name of class],” how would you respond?  How do you think you would respond in five years from now?
• Complete the following sentence: I used to think — but now I think — .
• Complete the following sentence: I used to — but now I will — .
• If you could share one idea from this course with others, what would it be, and why?
• One thing I would like to learn more about is: