Office Hours That Work: Practical Lessons from My Own Experiments
A practical look at what actually helped students show up—and open up
One of the great challenges of being an effective professor is hosting office hours for empty seats. Whether virtual or in-person, many of my colleagues have shared frustration with students not taking advantage of their designated office hours. While you might expect students to have a harder time showing up in person, my own experience has shown they often face similar hurdles to virtual hours.
No matter how open and welcoming faculty strive to be, for some students - perhaps especially first generation college students - the intimidation factor is a significant hurdle. A significant challenge in my students’ case is shifting schedules for full-time employment - they often do not know what their schedule looks like for the week ahead which makes planning in advance a hard thing to do.
Over the years, I’ve experimented with blocks of time and I continue to do that in a way that seems to work well for both me and my students. Below are some factors I’ve experimented with over the last few years and how that has worked well or not as well.
Timing of Office Hours
The vast majority of my students are working adults trying to carve out time for graduate school. Many are also parents of younger kids which means evening hours, were I to provide them regularly, are not particularly useful.
I currently offer my standard hours on Tuesday from 3 to 5 p.m. and Thursday from 9 to 10 a.m. This allows for some flexibility in timing for my East coast students (that’s our university base) and some workability for those in other time zones.
I post these hours clearly and regularly* in the LMS shell and announcements. I am also clear that I can be flexible if none of my availability works for students (and I communicate that regularly*).
*As my fellow professors might know, no matter how many times I say it I will still get emails along the lines of “I can’t meet during any of your available times.”
Scheduling in 15 Minute Blocks
I limit student meetings to 15 minute blocks. Most of the time we meet for less than that as students have a couple questions I am easily prepared to answer (as no offense to students they are rarely questions that shock me!). In some cases students just need a reminder they’re doing well and can keep going which also rarely requires a super long meeting! Occasionally I hear from a student that they will definitely need to meet with me for more than 15 minutes. I hold firm on my timing boundary and I can say that I’ve gone over my 15-minute window since implementing it once.
I automate scheduling (more on that below) which means I have a feature activated to give me wiggle room between appointments if a need to chat longer arises. If a student is really struggling with writing or research, we probably do need more than 15 minutes and I can identify that and schedule for a longer chunk of time to meet in a follow up. I like a follow up call because it gives the student a break and time to process feedback if it was hard to hear and it gives space for the student to do some follow up work before we meet again.
Automating Scheduling
I have used Calendly for probably nearly a decade now. I started using the paid version in my former life as academic administrator and decided to keep paying for it personally because it makes my life that much easier. (My university is a Microsoft school so we have access to Bookings but the features there are far less customizable).
With Calendly, I set my standard hours and edit as needed. Here is why this works well:
By using the paid plan, Calendly checks my personal calendar and my work calendar and only shows availability in the window selected if both are free. (I don’t have to remember to block my work calendar if I have a dentist appointment during office hours or put my personal business on my work calendar).
I provide an office hours link to students and they easily see my availability in their own time zone and schedule with me. I do not have to engage in back and forth emails of “does this time work?” and neither do they!
Once scheduled, Calendly sends the calendar invite to the student, puts it on my calendar, and blessedly sends them regular reminders based on the settings I’ve selected. A Zoom link is included (you can also use other web meeting types).
I have customized the landing page for each meeting type and am able to provide direction to students about ho to prepare for the meeting as they schedule.
I have customized the questions for office hours to help focus students on optimizing our time together.
Students can schedule time with me from the start of the term to the end if that makes them feel more organized/prepared. Each invite comes with instructions on cancelling if they change their minds and I’m happy for students to do whatever makes them feel most supported in setting up chats in advance.
I also have separate meeting types set up with their own set of available hours, questions, etc. (i.e., MBA advising, meetings for MBA faculty, etc.). You can see my personal examples here.
The peace of mind and ease of administrative duty this technology gives me makes the personal out of pocket very worth it.
Group Live Sessions
For years now, I’ve been experimenting with live sessions for students. With the exception of a shorter summer 1 term, our terms are 8 weeks long which can make larger assignments like course projects overwhelming. I do my best to publish dates and host 2-3 live sessions each term depending on the course.
What has not worked is trying to host an effective syllabus review in week 1 so I now post that as a video to the course home page. However, live sessions focused on specific assignments, largely course projects are fairly successful.
I do not record the sessions and they’re not required. I don’t record them because participation plummets when I do. They’re supplemental and a bit of a “group office hours” set up. I normally see about 10-15% participation and the students that attend are almost always those who also meet with me 1:1 and are excelling in the course.
I’ve gotten feedback from students that these sessions are super helpful. In most cases I’m reviewing key aspects of the project that are already provided in a course video, but the chance to answer questions live is helpful for students. And as a fully online, asynchronous program, I think the chance to meet with each other - and me - via video gives us a bit more of a human connection. I know from my own experience as a student how much of a difference that bit of humanity can make!
Boundaries are Reasonable
While I am clear about flexibility, I also hold my own boundaries.
I do not meet with students one-on-one in the evening unless there’s an extreme need for an exception. I’m not my best working self then and I often have personal commitments. Most students can find some point during a fairly standard 9-5 window that we can make a meeting work.
I avoid early morning meetings as I am focusing more on my need for deep work and a chance to get a workout in during those hours. I also find those meetings to be most likely forgotten or missed by students!
I will review a student’s graded work in office hours but I do not review work in advance because (a) these are graduate students and (b) to do that fairly I would have to advance review work for up to 90 students a term which is hardly sustainable. I am happy to answer specific questions (an important thing for students to learn how to prep for) and advise on next steps from there. But I firmly believe students need to learn to submit, be graded, hear feedback, use feedback, and grow…
Flexibility means we find a time that works together - not that the professor has to cancel their plans entirely to make it work or meet at unreasonable hours.
Some suggested reading on this topic:
Abdul-Wahab, S. A., Salem, N. M., Yetilmezsoy, K., & Fadlallah, S. O. (2019).
Students’ reluctance to attend office hours: Reasons and suggested solutions. Journal of Educational and Psychological Studies, 13(4), 715–732. https://doi.org/10.53543/jeps.vol13iss4pp715-732
Furbish, W. G., Cohen, S. D., Berndtson, R., Burson, K. M., Camper, K. M., Chen, Y., & Smith, M. A. (2014). Starting the conversation: An exploratory study of factors that influence student office hour use. College Teaching, 62(3), 94–99. https://doi.org/10.1080/87567555.2014.896777
Menke, S. B., & Curtis, N. M. (2022). Student motivations and barriers toward online and in-person office hours in STEM courses. CBE—Life Sciences Education, 21(3), ar68. https://doi.org/10.1187/cbe.20-04-0068PMC+2ResearchGate+2Life Sciences Education+2
Smith, M., Chen, Y., Berndtson, R., Burson, K. M., & Griffin, W. (2014).
Starting the conversation: An exploratory study of factors that influence student office hour use. College Teaching, 62(3), 94–99. https://doi.org/10.1080/87567555.2014.896777
Wang, Y., & Deggs, D. M. (2009). A cross-cultural, exploratory study of students' reluctance to attend office hours. Learning and Teaching in Higher Education: Gulf Perspectives, 6(1). https://doi.org/10.18538/lthe.v6.n1.02