Reimagining Office Hours

The traditional format of Office Hours didn’t work for me. Before I taught my first online course, I was warned by fellow Engineering for Professionals faculty about the low turnout to Office Hours. I also discussed Office Hours with my wife, who holds a PhD in biology, and we both remembered that, in our university days, we rarely went to Office Hours unless we had a specific problem we couldn’t solve. From these discussions with my wife and colleagues, I quickly realized the traditional question-and-answer format of Office Hours wouldn’t generate enough student participation for a lively discussion. In an asynchronous, online course, interaction can be sparse, which makes it challenging to connect with students. But connecting with students and sharing my passion for the course topics is essential to how I teach so, I asked myself, “How could I get students to participate in my Office Hours?”

I came up with multiple strategies, which I’ve implemented in both of my online courses, Introduction to Oceanography and Physics of Climate. These strategies include incentivizing students to attend my Office Hours and making these sessions valuable, so students want to keep attending. With these strategies, I now regularly have about half my class attend my sessions on a given night, which is good, but I still strive to have all my students participate. Between my reimagined Office Hours and my participation in module Discussions, I have more interaction with students than I had in the face-to-face version of my courses!

Incentivizing Students to Attend

Brand My Sessions

I realized that Office Hours have a branding problem. Everyone—instructors included—seem to think they are a waste of time unless a student is really struggling with a problem. So I decided to transform my Office Hours into causal, conversational “Chats,” similar to those I had in the chartrooms of ships I worked on as an oceanographer. In the chartroom we would discuss the experiment we were working on, plans for the day, how the ocean worked, as well as personal topics such as how well our children understood what we were doing at sea. I tried to transfer that comfortable setting to my courses and invite students to “stop by for a chat,” rather than ask them to attend Office Hours, which they may not feel are useful.

My rebranded Office Hours sessions are now called “Chartroom Chats” in my Oceanography course and “Climate Chats” in the Climate course that I co-teach with Dr. Pete Winstead. To really create the feel of the chartroom, I actually use a virtual background in Zoom which is a picture of a real chartroom (image of Barque Glenlee, 1896, courtesy of Randy Plunkett used by permission).

Give Extra Credit for Attending

Students always appreciate getting something in return for their efforts. To incentivize them to participate in my sessions, I require them to attend or listen to at least one of the first four Chats. They earn 10 points towards their Participation grade by “attending” a Chat, the same points as for one Discussion. After that, they can earn one extra credit point per Chat, up to 10 points total. Hopefully the extra credit encourages them to at least get a taste at the beginning of the course of what these Chats have to offer. The idea is that once they attend, they will realize how fun, interesting, and valuable these sessions are and will continue participating.

Making Sessions Valuable

Engage Students Personally

To be effective in interacting with your students, it is important to know them, their goals, their interests, and their work. In the first Discussion of each of my courses, I ask students to complete a questionnaire that includes the following topics:

• Their personal and/or work experience related to the course topics
• A fun topic or photo they would like to share with their classmates about themselves
• Their undergraduate and graduate majors
• The highest-level course in topics related to my course (math, physics, fluid dynamics, oceanography, meteorology)
• Why they’re taking the course
• What oceanography/climate question they have always wanted answered

This last question often forms their Term Paper topic, so it’s good to get them thinking early and also reveals a lot about their interest in the course topics.

I organize key elements of this information in a spreadsheet. Before I start a Chat, I review that spreadsheet to help me remember the students and their backgrounds. Armed with this information, I can make the conversation more personal and draw them into the discussions. For example, I can ask them to contribute specifically to a topic, because I know their occupational background, e.g., a high school teacher. In one course, a student was having problems programming a computer on a chip (Raspberry Pi) for a climate project. Another student said he was an expert at programming such computers. At the end of the Chat, I said

the two of them could remain on the session and work through the programming problem together, which they did.

Plan Each Session

It’s important to go into each Chat with a specific plan, rather than going in unfocused and relying on what questions or topics students bring to the table. I have a standard format for my Chat sessions:

• Ask if there are questions about the last module’s lectures.
• Ask if there are questions about the Assignment.
• Ask if there are questions about the Discussion questions and elaborate on what you want them to learn through that exercise.
• Introduce other topics. I usually tell sea stories related to the topic, share relevant work experiences, or talk about what I’m personally researching. Frequently, I’ll share the screen on my tablet and work out relevant math problems from my experiences using a stylus, as seen in the picture here. You, as an instructor, can talk about projects you work on and problems you’ve overcome. Or you could discuss current events, like landing a probe on Mars. These examples are likely new to the students and can be an encouragement to them.
• Ask questions of them and their interests. They don’t have to be questions related to the course…it is a “chat” after all.
• Talk about what you will be covering in the next module.
• Keep it light and winsome!

Share Personal and Professional Stories

Sharing stories is my favorite part of my Chats. After 45 years of experience as an oceanographer, I have a lot of stories relevant to the courses and to problem solving! It lets my students connect with me personally, understand the real-world application of the course topics, and it is just fun, because I share stories from my career that are unusual and/or instructive. This conversation goes a long way toward getting students to open up and engage in the discussion, rather than attending in silence. It shows them that the session can have real value, e.g., entertaining content and real-world applications of the course topics. I also explore how my course might help students in their own personal work by using my student information spreadsheet to share stories that are specifically relevant to their work.

Devote the Necessary Time

Most importantly, make sure you devote the time necessary to make these sessions valuable to students who both do and do not have specific questions to ask you. Sometimes students show up early or stay late, because they want to talk to just you alone. You need to be the first to

join the meeting and the last to leave. At first it seems like more work than you’re used to doing for Office Hours, but it’s some of the most important work you can do during your course. It can really show students how the course topics are useful to them personally and professionally, as well as academically.

I hope some of these strategies will be useful for imaginatively reimagining your own Office Hours. Here is what some of my students have said about the Chats in my courses:

“Dr. Porter effectively conveyed his knowledge and enthusiasm for oceanography; I enjoyed watching every video lecture and enjoyed participating in the office hours conversations.”

“Dr. Porter’s “Climate Chats” were a highlight, too. He was eager to not only share his stories from his career and research but also hear from students.”

“Dr. Porter’s stories were very enjoyable and added very positively to the course and understanding of what it’s like to learn about and study the ocean.”

Above all, though, your Office Hours should be designed and executed as an integral and important part of your course. Have fun! Look forward to it! Send plenty of reminders to all the students! And you, too, will enjoy Office Hours more than you could have imagined!