As you know, the demand for office hours is increasing as we get closer to finals. In particular, Western University notes: Students will visit your office hours expecting to hold an hour-long one-on-one study session. This could certainly be valuable for the student, but can you manage such a session given the time constraints that come with being an instructor of a large class? If the answer is no, you may want to organize a dedicated review session. Dedicated review sessions or inviting more than one student at a time into office hours may be more efficient (before doing so, confirm with students that no one has a private matter to discuss). Record the review session so that it is available for students who were unable to attend.
I interviewed a few of our award-winning AIs in Luddy brainstormed tips based on how they manage office hours in large enrollment classes during finals which may be a bit different than the logistical systems you usually use to manage your large enrollment courses.
Before office hours begin –
Compile a list of FAQs that have occurred over the semester. FAQ list can be generated from:
Any questions frequently emailed to instructors/AIs or posted in a community forum (such as Slack, InScribe or MSTeams)
Any questions that students have answered incorrectly in the past in discussion sections or labs
Any questions/concepts that have been historically challenging for students since the course has been taught
Any questions reviewed to be difficult based on analytics you have access to from Canvas or other course tools.
Provide an agenda to students prior to office hours letting them know what topics you plan to cover during office hours before addressing individual questions.
Solicit questions from students. Many of the questions can be consolidated to address more than one concern.
Prepare handouts that cover FAQs that can be referenced during office hours.
During Office Hours
Moderate the waiting rooms. Ask students to submit questions while in waiting rooms and direct to rooms as frequently as possible
While students wait
Share threads to community forums in waiting rooms for students to review while waiting for individual help.
Share a list of study strategies that may be useful to enact.
Edit videos used during pandemic that address FAQs. Use PlayPosit to add additional commentary to videos to help support specific questions. If office hours are held in a computer lab, have videos loaded on specific computers while students wait for personalized feedback.
Create stations (in face-to-face classes) based on FAQ topics.