Live Office Hours
I found the notation about coordinating office hours with due dates quite interesting. We are a little backwards in this area. We are required to hold two hours per week of live/real time office hours so that we are available to students at defined times. However, our course unit due dates are Sunday midnight. Very few, if any of us, are available Sunday night. We should consider revising our unit due dates to Monday or Tuesday so that we can be available to students on those days. Very few students show for office hours at the beginning of a unit, but I frequently am hammered with questions over the weekend.
I have mine on Mondays, from 6-8pm, but I think I am going to change them to:
Office Hours
Monday through Sunday, anytime between 330pm and 8pm Eastern. If I miss you, leave a detailed message and I will call you back.
I don't want students thinking becuase they missed my office hours Monday's, they have to wait a week because they are too shy to contact the instructer.
Jeff
In my 11+ years of online teaching, I have had 1 student attend my Office Hours (also a 2 hours per week requirement). Students will find me online and send an IM, but the Office Hours are quite ineffective. I understand that ensuring a specific time to be available to engage with students is vauable. However, if the student were to contact me and set a specific time/date that worked for them, you achieve the same goal without wasting the instructors time.
Beth,
I have a very similar situation. Very rarely will a student contact me during my office hours. I also encourage them to communicate with me as much as possible. I respond to emails everyday but I tell them to contact me whenever they need to. My only request is to keep in mind the time zone differences if they decide to call me. I had a student call me at 5 in the morning once. I find that the majority of my students will use email or instant message. Some will text me back and a few have called.
Afrodite Tsiakopoulos
