I have a hard time getting students to come to my office hours. When I do have one-on-one conversations with students outside of class, they almost always feel like a breakthrough of some sort, especially when meeting with my online students that I rarely chat with synchronously. As I start to wrap up this quarter at DePaul and make my inevitable list of all the things I want to do differently next quarter, I’m looking for ways to see more students during my office hours. 

I’m not the only one trying to figure this out. Derek Bruff and Beckie Supiano reference the same study led by Jeremy L. Hsu at Chapman University. In Spring 2021, Hsu and his team surveyed 500+ STEM students and 28 instructors to figure out what they think about office hours. Students and instructors both identified “Ask questions or review material, including going more in depth into related concepts” as the top reason to use office hours. 

After that, the results diverge. Students report these as reasons to use office hours: 

• Pay attention to other students’ questions (8.7%)
• Get ready for quiz, exam, or other in-class assessment (7.5%)

Instructors report these as reasons to use office hours: 

• Discuss ways to study and metacognition (10.7%)
• Discuss careers, research, internships, and other career-building endeavors (10.7%)

And the top two reasons students reported for not using office hours were 

• Had no questions to ask or felt like they fully understood the course material (41.4%)
• Had activities or other commitments at the same time as office hours (40.9%)

Eduardo Gonzalez Niño, associate teaching professor at University of California at Santa Barbara, is collaborating with Hsu, Rowland-Goldsmith and Benaksas Schwartz. Niño’s early survey findings indicate that first-generation, underrepresented minority students and low-income students are less able to come to office hours because of time conflicts; these time conflicts are mostly attributed to work. 

We should use this information to help better reach students, for as Supiano urges while recalling the way Niño’s academic career was shaped by an office hours chat, “One conversation with a professor can change the trajectory of a student’s life.”  Ruben Parra’ discovered that Homework Exercise Reports dramatically increased student engagement during office hours in his blog post exploring effective use of office hours in higher education.

Below, I’ve pulled together some suggestions for ways we might make office hours more accessible and help students see office hours as a valuable resource. 

Regularly remind students how they can use office hours. 

Connect the reminders to what’s happening in your course, in the department, and at the university: 

• A week before a research proposal is due, encourage students to use office hours to run their ideas by you. 
• If your department is collecting proposals for a student-led conference, offer to talk about the proposal process when the call for proposals goes live. 
• One week after an exam, offer office hours as a space for students to receive extra feedback on their responses, and work through corrections to help them prepare for the next exam. 

Point to the more unexpected benefits of participating in office hours.  

Provide specific examples. Consider describing how you benefited from office hours as a student. 

When I was an undergraduate student, I learned about an internship opportunity because of an office hours conversation. Later, I relied on office hours while considering my grad program options.

Squash hesitations or myths about office hours.

Supiano, Bruff, and Hsu note some of the “myths” students might hold:

• You are bothering instructors if they attend office hours.
• You need to be struggling to benefit from office hours. 
• You must have a specific question to attend office hours. 
• If you don’t attend regularly, you shouldn’t attend at all.

Your syllabus is one place you might address these directly. 

Rename your office hours to better align with your personality and approach to office hours. 

• “Let’s Talk!” 
• “Drop-in Hours” 
• “Chat with the Professor”  
• “Coffee and Conversation” 
• “Exam Prep” 
• “Support on Slack” (more on this below)  

Ask ChatGPT for additional examples tailored to the unique circumstances of your classes. 

Make the location of your office hours more welcoming. 

Consider reserving a space closer to where students already study, like a collaborative floor in the library or a student center. Offer an online option, via Zoom or Microsoft Teams, for students who don’t live or spend much time on campus and those juggling many other obligations. 

Create an online booking system. 

Picking set times that work for all students is nearly impossible. Consider an online scheduling system to remove the step where students need to email you for an appointment. Use a tool like Microsoft Bookings with me or Calendly so your availability is synced with your calendar. 

For drop-in sessions that happen just a couple times, like before a big exam or project, a lower-tech solution like a Google Doc with available times works too.

Move your office hours to chat. 

Consider reworking the format of your office hours entirely, using a tool like Discord or Slack to facilitate drop-in Q&A sessions where students aren’t required to use their video or voice to participate. 

Advertise your office hours. 

Create an infographic (Canva is my favorite infographic tool) to show students different ways they can use office hours and to call out some of the benefits. Upload it to your course site and print it out and put it on your office door. Include a QR code that takes students to the scheduling system where they can sign up for a time to meet with you. 

Sources 

Bruff, D. (2023, January 11). The mystery of office hours. LinkedIn. Retrieved from https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/mystery-office-hours-derek-bruff/   

Cordell, R. C. (2021, January 21). Tips for classroom discord. Ryan C. Cordell. Retrieved from https://ryancordell.org/teaching/classroom-discord/   

Hsu, J. L., Rowland-Goldsmith, M. & Benaksas Schwartz, E. (2022). Student Motivations and Barriers toward Online and In-Person Office Hours in STEM Courses. CBE—Life Sciences Education, 21:4. https://doi.org/10.1187/cbe.22-03-0048 

Mowreader, A. (2023, April 19). Academic Success Tip: Rebrand Office Hours. Inside Higher Ed. Retrieved from https://www.insidehighered.com/news/student-success/academic-life/2023/04/19/academic-success-tip-rebrand-office-hours  

Supiano, B. (2023, August 21). The Missed Opportunity of Office Hours. Chronicle of Higher Education. Retrieved from https://www.chronicle.com/article/the-missed-opportunity-of-office-hours?sra=true&cid=gen_sign_in 

University of Texas at El Paso. Office Hours Sample Language for your Syllabus. UTEP Edge. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.utep.edu/edge/for-faculty-and-staff/office-hours-syllabus-language.html