When deciding on a platform to use for Office Hours, some questions to consider include

1. How important is it to see students (phone vs videochat)?

2. How can you allow for one-on-one conversations to discuss confidential topics, such as grades?

3. If many students are consistently participating in Office Hours, how can you create a system to ensure each student receives the appropriate amount of individual attention?

As you consider the tools below, keep the above questions in mind to help inform your decisions.

Employing a Scheduling System

Having a system in which students schedule time slots within the scheduled Office Hours can prevent too many students from showing up at once (a potential challenge when students want to review feedback on assignments). Time slots can also allow faculty to control the amount of time given to each student and can encourage students to attend when they set up a definite appointment. One free tool that can be used to manage scheduling is Calendly.

• Calendly: Calendly is a free scheduling website that allows users to create an account and create a link that students can use to sign up for a set amount of time (such as 15 minutes) during Office Hours. Since the time faculty enter into their schedule on Calendly can be repeated, such as every Tuesday from 9:00am- 10:00am, the same scheduling link can be used throughout the semester. That link could be posted in D2L or another LMS with instructions for how students can sign up.

Tools for Office Hour Sessions

1. Zoom

The online meeting platform Zoom allows for individual or group meetings using video and/or audio. The Zoom Personal Meeting Room, a feature of Zoom, is a online meeting space that is always available for the account holder to enter and has a single Join link that can be used throughout a semester. In other words, the Zoom Personal Meeting Room uses a single link for joining at any time rather than generating a new link for each session. Faculty can share the Personal Meeting Room Join link with their students along with the Office Hours times so that students know when and where to find them.

The Zoom Personal Meeting Room uses the Waiting Room feature of Zoom. With the Waiting Room, faculty admit each student into the session. As the session host, you are prompted with a notification and can then "Admit" each student with a click of a button to allow them to enter. By using the Waiting Room, faculty can ensure they are speaking with students one at a time or meet with groups of students, as needed. Additionally, if faculty are meeting with a student and would like to notify those in the Waiting Room with a message such as "I'll be with you in just a minute and look forward to speaking with you!", they can send a message to those in the Waiting Room, similar to how you might pop out into the hall to greet a student waiting to enter your office.

This video demonstrates how the Waiting Room is beneficial for Office Hours.

During an Office Hours session in Zoom, by using the Share Screen function of Zoom, faculty can provide live feedback on work such as essay drafts.

It’s important to communicate your Office Hours information (times, how to access, and purposes of Office Hours) to your students so that they can easily find the information throughout the semester. Places to promote Office Hours include

• The course syllabus

• In a Welcome message to students (either email or D2L News announcement)

• In a D2L News announcement before the first scheduled Office Hours

• As you begin or end a synchronous class session.

·In the first week of classes, consider asking students if they’d be more likely to attend Office Hours if one of the Office Hours times was scheduled in the evening. If students’ schedules would make an evening Office Hours session more accessible, consider making one of your Office Hours times each week in the evening to accommodate for students with stricter daytime work and family schedules.

Communicate your expectations to students: can students enter and exit the Office Hours session as they wish or should they only attend by appointment?

After finding the best platform to use, there's still the matter of getting students to participate in Office Hours. Some suggestions for encouraging students to take advantage of Office Hours include

• Make sure the instructions for joining are posted in a clearly accessible spot (such as the News in D2L) and repeat the info often in any weekly announcements or synchronous sessions.

• Let students know what Office Hours can be used for. Faculty can sometimes mistakenly assume that students begin the course already knowing the purpose of Office Hours. When you begin your course, explain to students the purposes and benefits of Office Hours, noting particular examples of how students have used Office Hours in the past.

• Invite students individually. If you notice that a student is struggling with a concept, skill, or assignment, send them a personal invite via email to encourage them to attend a particular Office Hours session.

• Make attending Office Hours a requirement of one of the early course assignments or make attending Office Hours a very minor assignment to be completed by a date early in the semester. While some may bristle at the notion of making Office Hour attendance a graded assignment, keep in mind the benefits students receive from participating in Office Hours, including a greater likelihood of remaining in the course if they've had opportunities to build a personal connection with the instructor.

Many faculty may be considering teaching their online course by providing instructions through approaches like lectures asynchronously and then having weekly synchronous group sessions for students to ask questions and work through any recurring challenges. Such synchronous sessions may be similar to Office Hours in their focus on students' questions and not having a definite agenda. While designing a course with such asynchronous and synchronous opportunities is a great approach, it is also important to provide opportunities for students to have opportunities communicate with faculty in a one-on-one setting, when needed.