Using Office Hours

Overview

Office hours can be lonely for faculty. We set aside time for students to see us, but if they don't contact us, we use the time for other work. The term itself can be a signficant barrier in students attending, but there are many reasons that students don'tt take us up on the offer for a one-on-one discussion about our courses. This page provides context and resources that faculty can use to increase student participation in office hours. But, I think it is important to remind ourselves that students bear a lot of the responsibility for the choice to attend or not. I don't want to suggest that it's our jobs to "make" students attend. It is not. However, their are some appraoches that fall within faculty responsibility that remove at least some of the barriers. 

 

The Problem: Misunderstanding and Perceptions of Office Hours

No matter how approachable and supportive you intend to be, many students consider office hours "weird." They bring a lot of baggage with them about office hours, including of unpleasant memories of being called into the teacher's office when they were in trouble or (worse yet) unproductive visits with previous instructors. Other misunderstanding were foundational - the purpose and usefulness of the time together. 

In the article “‘Office Hours are Kind of Weird’: Reclaiming a Resource to Foster Student-Faculty Interaction" Links to an external site. by M .Smith, student perceptions of office hours are a major reason for not attending. The students cited the following issues with office hours:

  1. They are needed only for emergency. One student told the researcher that they only reason they would attend would be: “If I was doing very, very, very bad in the class…”
  2. They are not worth the effort. Other students said, “I haven’t needed them” and “I can just email.”
  3. Faculty are unapproachable. Students often cited faculty as the problem: “Some professors make you feel like a burden for coming to office hours and interrupting their work. Or they make you feel stupid for asking some questions or being concerned with your grade.”)

Recently, the Chronicle of Higher Ed’s Teaching Newsletter (Oct 2022) published the article “Do Your Students Know What Office Hours Are For? Links to an external site.” by Beckie Supiano. It provided an overview of the study on student and faculty perceptions about office hours: Hsu, Jeremy L., Melissa Rowland-Goldsmith, and Elaine Benaksas Schwartz. “Student Motivations and Barriers toward Online and In-Person Office Hours in STEM Courses Links to an external site..” Life Sciences Education, Sept 2022. 

The study was a comparison between faculty and students about the motivations and barriers for attending office hours, and it drew from interviews with 500 students, representing most life sciences majors at Chapman University, along with interviews with 17 faculty, teaching 13 different courses. The following short video provides an overview of the clear mismatch in student vs. faculty perceptions about the benefits and barriers. 

What I hope that you will take away from the study is a large gap between faculty and student perceptions of barriers and benefits. Of course, it is vital that we discuss some possible solutions - not necessarily the kind of grand solutions that fix everything, just a start to highlighting the benefits and removing some barriers. 

 

Ways to Help Improve Office Hours Attendance

One of the simplest approaches that can make a difference is changing the name. SCC faculty member Erin Huebener introduced me to the term, "Student Support Hours" as a replacement for office hours, and it clealy articulates the purpose and focus in the new title. I understand that concern that students will not connect it to the concept of "office hours" in the future and may lose transfer application, but it is a good start. 

The article also presents some useful strategies for tasks that firmly rest in faculty responsibility. 

The recommendations from the article are 1. explicitly discuss the norms and benefits of office hours. 2. explore ways to remove barriers, 3. provide opportunities for students to practice and receive feedback in the course and 4. promote an inclusive environment.

The first stategy is pretty self explanatory. You might review information on how to TILT your office hour by looking at the related TLC resources on make your syllabus transparent and equitable. Additionally, consider an easy and funny way to start an in-class discussion. See ASU's video, "Introducing Faculy Office Hours Links to an external site.."

The second is more difficult: removing barriers. No one can make more hours in the day, but you might way to schedule office hours till you have a chance to poll students on a couple of workable options for you. Or, you may add "pop up" office hours before specific times/days that you know are important (before an exam, before final grades are posted, etc.). 

The third approach is really important. Students don't know what they don't know. The more often they have opportunities to check in about their learning - easy quizzes, ungraded feedback, even large group questions and discussions - they get a chance to figure out if they are on the right track or now. And, it's even better when those check ins are low-stakes and formative (see some additional stratgies here). 

Finally, do you best to be the kind of person who will not be the barrier yourself. I don't think faculty ever mean to be a problem, but the power dynamic and past histories of students cannot be ignored. To promote the inclusive environment suggested, I offer the four connections, foused on building positive relationships with students: 1) inteact with students by name early, 2) monitor their progress and intervene when needed, 3) meet with students one-on-one, and 4) be a master of paradox, more specifically, having high standards and also high support. Additionally, the researchers suggested creative office hour locations - the library, the cafe, outside on nice days - that might also lessen the intimidation issue. 

 

Additional Resources