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[Office Hours are Obsolete]

I'm curious as to others' thoughts regarding the necessity of having ESTABLISHED office hours.  I can count on one hand the number of students who have just stopped by during my office hours over the past several years.  Granted, many students schedule appointments with me and I'm happy to meet w. them.  Even more students e-mail me and I typically respond within a matter of hours.

My point is that most students will not just "stop by" for traditional office hours.  I think this is yet another obsolete academic practice?  What say the rest of you?

[rattus domesticus]

Maybe. I have had students come--though it is rare. I have a colleague who schedules groups of students to come during his office hours, so they are not wasted. I mostly use the time to grade, make phone calls, and (whoa) post online here.

I know a few campuses who use this to attract students (in addition to teacher-student ratio). They tend to think of office hours AS availability... which I think is flawed. One campus I interviewed at insisted on 15 hours a week in the office... which I viewed as excessive. Although there were other reasons I didn't take that offer, the 15 hours a week "doing time" didn't help. I've also seen a posting for a f/t teaching position that required 30 hours a week on campus. Figuring 12 hours a week teaching, and a few hours on committees, that campus was also forcing instructors to do 15 hours a week sitting in one's office.

What's up with that? Do campuses think we're at home in our slippers, watching the Twilight Zone marathon with a frozen pizza in the oven? (Oh, that's me right now, but not regularly...) I wonder if this has been a result of pressure from administration... since they're on campus all the time. And goodness knows, there are a few secretaries who make snide remarks when we depart to do our many hours at home grading.

Any theories?

[%sig%]

[chemist]

When I was a student, I loved knowing that there were certain specific times my professors were guaranteed to be available.  I didn't go often for most classes, but I do remember seeing professors put down their grading or reading.  Since I am in chemistry it is more likely to see faculty on campus at any hours.  After all, it's just not possible to take the lab home with you, and it is not unusual to see some working 60 hour weeks.

When I was calculating out the hours I will have to be on campus this fall, I was absolutely shocked to find it added up to less than 25 hours a week.  It's no wonder admin and regular folk working 40 hour weeks don't take us seriously.  They only see what we do on our campuses, and when we go home after essentially being at work part time, it makes an impression.  After all, people working normal jobs generally assume that other people stop working when they go home from work.  I plan on being on campus more, since I can't imagine being able to do my job fully in less than 25 hours a week, and I would rather not carry a ton of grading home.

[English prof]

I teach fulltime at an R-1 but at night, so my students are all grownups who have other jobs during the day. I went four semesters of regularly holding the required number of office hours (6 hours a week) without having ANYONE come to my office hours.

So now I list the office hours on my syllabus, as we're required to do, but tell my students that I won't be there unless we have a scheduled appointment, and the easiest way to reach me is by e-mail or after class.

That's what they happily do.

[%sig%]

[Sad conditions...]

During all the umpteen years spent in higher ed I believe I visited professors in their offices a total of three times and never, ever knew their formal hours just bumbled by and accidentally found myself there.  My two undergrad universities had beautifully-appointed offices for faculty, probably a good reason why they were working there.  In grad school, faculty members had the most sucky, pathetic offices and were never there.   Mine have always been equally pathetic.  Office hours, in my opinion, are a very good thing, but administration should make it desirable for us to be on campus rather than like being in prison doing time (one office I had was a windowless, airless, bug-infested abomination with asbestos that mid-term needed to be removed in a covert x-files operation).

[bad strategies]

who wants to go to office hours except to bicker and argue grades?  i've never had anyone come and ask for real assitance in the office... but i tell them that i'll make a few hours available in a coffee house or pub if they want, and the next thing you know i have half the class coming to office hours.  never do it.  appointment only is the best way.

[chemist]

I went to all of one of my professor's office hours for a particularly difficult subject (physical chemistry).  I only saw other students just before each exam.  I always hated it when professors posted their office hours but were never there.  The only time I ever went to a professor's office hours about grades was when my exam was added up incorrectly.  I never argued a grade, because I knew there was no point.  My professors made it very clear that there was no arguing allowed, and they have very objective exams.  I guess it's easier to argue grades in mostly subjective subjects, and I probably could have argued some when I was a student.  That's why I specify my grading rubric, so that even when I am grading supposedly subjective things like lab reports, it's as objective as possible.  

As far as the office thing, there has to be someplace at those less office friendly campuses where you could move your office hours.  Maybe you could hold them at a certain place in the library or someplace else that is tolerable.  At my undergrad, some of the professors held a couple of their office hours in the dorms or other student-accessible locations.  None had office hours at pubs or bars, but a couple had extra office hours at the local coffee house (no alcohol and no smoking).  The local coffee house even had a back area that was quiet which they later equipped with chalk boards, making the office hours pretty productive.

I guess the main thing is that office hours are part of the job, and we have to find ways to make them productive or at least tolerable.  Sure, most of us don't like office hours, and most students don't use them very often.  It's the ones that do use them that we have to be available to see.  No matter what job you get there will be duties that you don't like or see much sense in doing, but it's part of the job.  For most professors, there aren't even that many office hours, but those few students that do come by will appreciate it.

[English prof]

We had an earlier thread a few months ago from a man who held classes in a pub. Our objections then would be a lot of the same objections now to holding office hours off-campus:

hard to get to, possibly impossible for students with disabilities, not conducive to quiet work, requiring extra expense (coffee), requiring extra time (parking or walking), discriminatory against students who don't have extra free time . . . etc.

Since we seem to have more and more students with disabilities, that would clinch it for me.

If we hold office hours at all, we should hold them in the office where students can easily find us.

[%sig%]

[rattus domesticus]

I agree. I've always stuck with my own office and kept my office hours. I post 'em, I'm there. If I'm trying to build a rapport with students, the last thing I want to do is NOT be there when I say I will be there. I think having office hours off-site is ill-advised--especially when an instructor is trying to increase "face time" on campus. Where I work now, one colleague has his office hours in what appears to be a gay bar in a neighborhood in the Castro in San Francisco. I'm not sure whether that increases or decreases his drop-ins, but it's not something I would do. Instructors who make their favorite coffee shop their office-hour place frequently don't consider access to public transport, parking and, of course, that their students will feel as if they should purchase something to have the right to sit there. Or the instructor will have to buy rounds of $3 muffins and $3 lattés--which I know I can't afford. Weird, if you ask me.

[another]

I generally schedule 30-45 minutes right after class to meet with students -- but I don't see the point of dragging them across campus in mid-winter -- so we usually just talk in the corridor ... I also make a point that I'm happy to see students after class to discuss any questions about subject matter or assignments -- but I will *not* meet with students who skipped class (especially the ones who were too ill to show up at 11:00 but seem to be in perfect health to meet with me at 2:00!) And e-mail for the rest. Sitting in my (otherwise unused) office just in case some student who hasn't bothered attending class wants private tutorials is a waste of time.

[Anon Grad Student]

As an undergraduate I always like office hours that were scheduled right after class.  That way you don't necessarily have to go out of your way to go to the office.  Often times I think office hours are poorly scheduled.  They shouldn't be scheduled extremely early in the morning (i.e. when the first class starts) or extremely late (especially late on Fridays.  4:00 on a Friday is not a good time to schedule office hours; especially since some students at some campuses go home on weekends).  Having office hours too early or too late forces off campus students to stay on campus too long (especially if they only have classes in the middle of the day).  This can be frusterating if you have to take a bus (or I assume subway in the case of big cities) that has a wonky schedule or long route.  By scheduling closer to the class you give students the ability to come to your office hours at a reasonable time and you will most likely get more students because they can follow you directly from class.

[ofc hour system]

Hi, all--
The administration at my R1 requires office hours that equal the number of teaching hours.  So we have to meet (and I do emet in my crappy tiny window-looks-out-on-wall ceiling-falling-in office, because I think the coffee house ofc hour has an implication of "social" rather then work purpose).  But the main issue for me is how to get ofc hours to meet their real purpose without allowing whiny gradegrubbers and classcutters any attention or tutorial, and without wasting my time, and without wasting students' time (I used to have long lines of students when papers were due or beofre exams, and that wasted their time too).  Here's whatseems to have worked for me: a sign up sheet, with 15 minute spots, and a place for "topic" at the side---what they want to discuss. (They sometimes write funny things---"the meaning of life" one once said; mostly they put "grade" or "paper coming up" or a subject they didn't understand in class. (PhD students can sign up for 30 minutes, or make separate appts.--different situation there.) Undergrads sign up for one 15-min spot. In 16 yrs of teaching I have never had an undergrad issue we couldn't resolve in 15 minutes of serious talk.  If no one is signed up, I close the door and work. When a signed-up student comes, I know she/he is coming, I know what the issue will be, I am prepared to discuss it. We don'twaste each other's time.  They don't stand in line. I don't anxiously scan the hallway. They know it's not handholding time or whining time. Seems to work, and it keeps the administration at bay, because I have a record of my ofc hours. Email consultation also helps in that regard. Happy summer everyone.

[Linnaeus]

Or am I misquoting Conrad?

Yes, we have to have posted office hours (4X/wk), and I put them in my syllabus, and, yes, few if any students use them.  But they are not a waste--it gives me a reason not to wander off, and (perhaps) get something productive done in that time, 'tho it's usually spent on...well, staring at the computer and visiting sites like this one.

Of course, I am in my office far more than my office hours, door open, and probably do more in-office consultation outside of OHs than in them, but brief before-class and after-class interactions probably get the most useful OH duties done, and, of course, outside of OHs.

More pointless is our responsibility to "advise for pre-registration," eight hours a semester during the pre-reg period beyond our office hours, which, before on-line registration became possible, actually produced a fair trickle of students; these past few years, one or two over two weeks.  And I would prefer more, since SO many students are not navigating the catalog and curriculum requirements correctly, and a few minutes with me often would reveal that , "Do you really think that's a good idea?"  "You will not graduate on time if you follow that schedule."  "That course does not fulfill your degree requirements."  And so on.

[%sig%]

[Mouse]

Plus, if you hold office hours off campus, you're missing out on that valuable face time.  And if any students are showing up with the sole purpose of bickering and arguing about grades...well, I want it to be in the department, with my office door open and campus security near by.

[melba]

Not once, but twice this has happened to me. I get into my office much earlier than my 10:00 a.m. office hours, close the door and get to work. At about 10:15 I step out to get a drink of water, or what not. And there outside my door is a student who arrived at 10:00 promptly and has been waiting for me to show up!  :)