3: Meet with Students One-On-One

Many faculty struggle with practice #3 - meeting with students one-on-one during the quarter. This can be a serious time commitment, especially if you teach an online or hybrid course, but meetings allow you to address some topics that are much more difficult to cover in large groups:

  • future goals and connections to the class
  • drafts of an upcoming high-stakes assignment (paper, presentation, etc.) 
  • current performance in the class
  • learning bottlenecks or poor assessment performance
  • post-assessment review (after the exam or paper)
  • open course Q&A

Here are some strategies for meeting with students. 

 

Emphasizing Growth Mindset

You can use your meetings with students to emphasize other important skills, like developing a growth mindset. The following chart has suggestions for leading different kinds of conferences that foster a growth mindset (you can also access the file here Download Student_conferences_that_foster_a_Growth_Mindset.pdf).

 

Office Hours

One of my favorite new assignments is an office hour drop in. I assign this the first week of class and give people a couple of weeks to complete a stop in - either a quick hello, only long enough to have me mark down the student's name, or a longer sit-down conversation. I make this a low point assignment, and of course, I offer additional times to meet with other than schedule office hours. 

Most importantly, I try to encourage students to re-think visiting with faculty. Up to this point, the most likely reason that they would be called into a teacher's office is if they were in serious trouble. Helping them shift their thinking to college norms is really important. One of the ways that I try to accomplish this is showing them ASU's "Faculty Office Hours" video:

Online Classes

Technology tools like Zoom allow for one-on-one video or voice conferences, but it can take a lot of time to see an entire class. If your class is fully online, you might consider trying to set up meetings with only three or four students a week, working with their schedules for a quick conversation. 

 

From Lake Washington:

Scheduling Meetings

Faculty members use a variety of approaches for scheduling one-on-one meetings.

  • Office Hours: Full-time faculty frequently use their office hours as the time designated for one-on-one meetings. Use of office hours can pose challenges for students who are only on campus during class time. Office hours are also a challenge for adjunct faculty who typically do not get paid for office hours.
  • Class Conferences: One option is to use regular class time for individual meetings with students. This might look like holding class for all students for the first hour or so of a scheduled period and then following with conferences.
  • Lab Hours: Some faculty members have tightened up their lab documents, creating stronger guides that students can go through mostly on their own/with peers. During lab time, faculty members meet with individual students, taking breaks between meetings to check back in with the larger group.
  • Use of Technology: Whether your class meets face-to-face, hybrid, or online, use online tools for your meetings. If you are a Microsoft campus, all students and employees typically have access to Skype for Business with their college email accounts. If you are a google campus (or if you prefer google), google hangouts are simple to navigate and easy to join with a mobile device or a computer. Your college may have other web conferencing tools you can use. Check with your eLearning office to learn more.
  • Use of Email: Some students don’t feel comfortable using a web cam (or cannot because of life happening in the background) or online tools in general. A faculty member at Saddleback Community College adapted to this by scheduling varying online office hours where he is available via email for immediate response. He posts the hours clearly and is able to “meet” with a number of students by replying to emails they send during those time frames.

Sign-up forms for one-on-one meetings can be printed and posted in your classroom. You can also create a Canvas page that is editable by students and you. List the time slots available and have students add their name next to the time that works best for them.

Related Resources and Tools: Schedule One-on-One Meetings