Hold one-on-one consultations

Support Interaction→ Check Concepts→ Hold one-on-one consultations

Office hours are important opportunities to get students to share their confusions, misunderstandings, and to ask in-depth questions, that were not addressed completely in class. It will also provide you an opportunity to check on their understanding as well as give them the individual attention they need. Setting up online office hours can take place at times that are convenient for you and more viable for your students. Nevertheless, following are some best practices for your consideration when organising online office hours.

Planning your office hours

Step 1: Choose a technological tool
Select an online tool that helps facilitate online office hours and other online communication with your students.

Step 2: Schedule online office hours
Plan office hours carefully. Vary the times and days of the appointment. Announce your availability on LumiNUS. Create consultation slots on LumiNUS so that students can book for the slots easily. You can set these slots to be repeated (e..g, weekly slots or fortnightly slots)

Step 3: Connect with your students
Explain on the purpose of office hours with your students on the first day of class. Even the warmest encouragement may not get students into your office hours, so you may have to “require” their attendance. For example, you could require each student to schedule a meeting with you early in the semester–as part of a paper assignment (draft review) or to go over a problem solution. This first meeting will foster repeat visits. Ensure that they know when the office hour is and how to participate. Refer to “Managing your office hours” below for suggestions on making your office hours productive.

Online tools

The following tools can be used to help facilitate online office hours and other online communication with students:

Real-time office hours

Asynchronous office hours

Managing your office hours

To make your online office hours productive, you may need to:

• Let your students know your meeting expectations.
  • Inform the students if they need to make an appointment in advance with you or to strictly follow the available pre-arranged time slots.
  • If you are using the waiting room feature to control access to the meeting, inform your students to wait to be admitted to the room.
  • Emphasise to students that office hours are not receiving a recap of a lecture or lesson.
• Prepare your students for the meeting.
  • Instruct them to bring appropriate materials (e.g., lecture notes, homework problems, drafts of their papers, or readings that they have problems understanding) if needed.
  • Ask students to write out and be prepared with their questions or points of confusion  before the consultation.
  • Make a Q&A list with common questions students may have and require them to go through it before signing up a meeting to avoid repetitive questions.
• Engage your students during the meeting.
  • Spend a few minutes finding out how they are, how they find the course, and how they are experiencing college.
  • Make your sessions with students a chance to continue teaching them, by helping them work through their own confusions or problems.
  • Provide guidance toward problem-solving rather than simply giving students the answer.

Resources

https://www.washington.edu/teaching/topics/engaging-students-in-learning/face-to-face-office-hours/

http://cft.vanderbilt.edu/guides-sub-pages/office-hours/