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.
