{"id":4838,"date":"2024-03-18T08:00:00","date_gmt":"2024-03-18T15:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/inspire\/?p=4838"},"modified":"2024-03-20T14:38:12","modified_gmt":"2024-03-20T21:38:12","slug":"redesigning-office-hours-for-asynchronous-online-courses","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/inspire\/2024\/03\/18\/redesigning-office-hours-for-asynchronous-online-courses\/","title":{"rendered":"Redesigning Office Hours for Asynchronous Online Courses"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>While attending a panel presentation by students pursuing degrees online, I heard one of the student panelists share something to the effect of, <em>\u201cOh, I don\u2019t do Office Hours. However, instead of Office Hours, one of my instructors had these \u2018Afternoon Tea\u2019 sessions on Zoom that I loved to attend when it worked with my schedule. She answered my questions, and I feel like she got to know me better. She was also available to meet by appointment.\u201d <\/em>What wasn\u2019t revealed was <em>why<\/em> this student wouldn\u2019t attend something called \u201cOffice Hours\u201d but did attend these other sessions. Did \u201cOffice Hours\u201d sound too formal? Was she unsure of what would happen during office hours, or unsure of what the purpose was? Did she think office hours was something students only went to if they were failing the course? The student didn\u2019t say.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>There is some mystery around why this student wouldn\u2019t attend office hours, and her comment reminded me of what I had read in <em>Small Teaching Online: Applying Learning Science in Online Classes<\/em>, by Flower Darby and James Lang (available digitally through the <a href=\"https:\/\/search.library.oregonstate.edu\/permalink\/01ALLIANCE_OSU\/1c3q896\/alma99730179501865\">Valley Library<\/a> if you are part of the OSU community). In <em>Small Teaching Online<\/em>, under the section titled, \u201cGet Creative with Virtual Office Hours,\u201d several tips are highlighted for how to enhance participation in office hours. Here is a summary of a few of those tips presented in this book, which are based on <a href=\"https:\/\/search.library.oregonstate.edu\/permalink\/01ALLIANCE_OSU\/1ffs2e1\/cdi_doaj_primary_oai_doaj_org_article_ab092eb17faf4dc98683d06c8d793ac9\">Lowenthal\u2019s 2017 study<\/a> (pp. 119-121, Darby &amp; Lang, 2019):<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Rename office hours to sound more welcoming: \u201cAfternoon Tea,\u201d \u201cConsultations,\u201d or \u201cCoffee Breaks\u201d are some ideas to consider (p. 188, Lowenthal, 2017).<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>To enhance participation, plan just 3-4 well-timed sessions instead of weekly office hours, and announce them early in the term. For timing, think about holding a session before or after a major assessment or project milestone is due, for example.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Collect questions ahead of time, and make office hours optional.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>Additionally, outside of office hours, remind students that you are available to meet with them individually by appointment since students\u2019 schedules vary so widely.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Putting these tips into practice, here is what the redesigned office hours can look like in an asynchronous online course, where this \u201cCoffee Break\u201d happens three times in the term and is presented in the LMS using the discussion board tool or the announcements feature as needed:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/lh7-us.googleusercontent.com\/IbDSxv0ofixfYQXkpqj2uILQk6nXTBOdc9ujYI3bopHgiegXNNIFQo5g1XEbzQWq00ZNV7LPs_3jkxJTSq5o4Wo5JhvmAnBtCFAHCNYSaUNLmW4-2z1ZXxv2YNa1GmpDBBiIwUcWz-riHbI4SF5-Hz0\" alt=\"Canvas page shows a banner image titled &quot;Coffee Break&quot; and  &quot;Join me for a chat. I hope to get to know each of you in this course, so I would like to invite you to virtual coffee breaks.&quot; The description on the page details expectations, tasks, and how to join the Coffee Break.\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>What I like about this design is that the purpose and expectations of the session are explained, and it is flexible for both students and faculty. The \u201cCoffee Break\u201d is presented in an asynchronous discussion board so that students\u2019 questions can be collected ahead of time and at their convenience. Further, if something comes up with the faculty and the live \u201cCoffee Break\u201d is canceled, the faculty can answer questions asynchronously in the discussion board. There is also a reminder that students are invited to make a separate appointment with their instructor at a time that works for them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Have you tried rebranding your office hours? How did it go?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h1 class=\"wp-block-heading\">References<\/h1>\n\n\n\n<p>Darby, F., &amp; Lang, J. M. (2019). <em>Small teaching online\u202f: applying learning science in online classes<\/em> (First edition.). Jossey-Bass, a Wiley Brand.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Lowenthal, P. R., Dunlap, J. C., &amp; Snelson, C. (2017). Live Synchronous Web Meetings in Asynchronous Online Courses: Reconceptualizing Virtual Office Hours. <em>Online Learning (Newburyport, Mass.)<\/em>, <em>21<\/em>(4), 177-. https:\/\/doi.org\/10.24059\/olj.v21i4.1285<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>While attending a panel presentation by students pursuing degrees online, I heard one of the student panelists share something to the effect of, \u201cOh, I don\u2019t do Office Hours. However, instead of Office Hours, one of my instructors had these \u2018Afternoon Tea\u2019 sessions on Zoom that I loved to attend when it worked with my&hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/inspire\/2024\/03\/18\/redesigning-office-hours-for-asynchronous-online-courses\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8272,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[1839,1065984,1386673],"class_list":["post-4838","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-ecampus","tag-office-hours","tag-oregon-state-unviersity"],"post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/inspire\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4838","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/inspire\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/inspire\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/inspire\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8272"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/inspire\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4838"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/inspire\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4838\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4840,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/inspire\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4838\/revisions\/4840"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/inspire\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4838"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/inspire\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4838"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/inspire\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4838"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}