January 18, 2007
Office Hours Become Alone Time, Thanks to the Net
Professors at the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities can probably find any number of ways to kill time during their office hours — grading papers, catching up on reading, playing FreeCell. But there’s one thing they’re not doing very much: counseling students.
For that, it seems, the Internet is to blame. In a survey conducted by The Minnesota Daily, three out of four students said they’d rather e-mail a professor or TA than trek to an office for face-to-face contact. The dwindling ranks of office-goers have left professors like Thomas Augst lamenting the days when students sought out faculty members, instead of expecting them to be seated at their computers, e-mail accounts open.
“All of us, I think, as faculty, recall in the not-so-distant past when students used to act as if their professor deserved a certain amount of respect,” says Mr. Augst, a professor of English. “Somehow these basic tools of the education road are being thrown out the window for the sake of students having this hyper-convenient access to their professors.” —Brock Read
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All a professor has to do is write, “Come and see me.” Many of mine did. Many questions do not require a face-to-face conversation. While it’s nice to discover things about your professors in their office, it’s frequently much easier to communicate quickly from remote locations, especially if it’s difficult for either party to get to campus due, for instance, to weather.
— Michael Chui Jan 19, 01:50 AM #
For today’s commuter student who is working full-time, running a household, trying to be a good spouse and an effective parent, and/or caring for other family members, communicating with a professor via IM or e-mail may be the only way they can “come to office hours.” I’m all for any method that makes me accessible to my students.
— Edie Woods Jan 19, 06:10 AM #
Reference librarians have been experiencing these effects of computer communication for several years. For many of us, people-oriented as we are, this has greatly decreased our satisfaction with our work lives.
— Elizabeth Cooksey Jan 19, 06:32 AM #
I’m not sure all professors are lamenting this inevitable development of technology. If professors really want to meet with students tete-a-tete, they need only to require it. Of course, I speak as someone who has only taught small, seminar-style classes. I shudder to think what office hours would look like for professors who teach large lectures.
— raymond gunn Jan 19, 07:18 AM #
I thought the blog in the link about had a point – just what our past technophobic university president feared. I like email but there are some things that need to be discussed face to face.
The rule that says faculty need to be in their offices ten hour a week may be out moded. Perhaps we need to be online – available to provide the instant feedback that today’s students have become used to. It is a two way street. Students need to be online to get faculty comments.
I like the instant messenging that our library uses – maybe we will have video instant messenging with students. Dang – I’ll have to get out of my jammies.
— Pat Semmes Jan 19, 07:37 AM #
This is a trend that professors need to manage. In-person contact is important to maintain and I agree with the first commenter that “come see me.” is a great response.
It is also important for profs to treat emails from students more like office hours — waiting until certain, scheduled times to respond. Otherwise, students come to feel that they are entitled to immediate responses to their requests.
www.successfulacademic.com
— Mary McKinney Jan 19, 08:05 AM #
The idea of responding to emails during set office hours is a great one. If you respond immediately, students do come to expect it all the time. As for emails in general, we don’t complain about using phones to help students; why should we lament email? Technophobia? Fear of change? In decades before the phone, letter writing as a form of communication in academia was an art. Perhaps we need to rediscover it through emails.
— Dr. Mark Simpson Jan 19, 09:44 AM #
I am a counselor and a professor. I put my email addresses [home and office] on my syllabi and encourage students to use this medium as a more effecient way to contact me. Mine is a communter school so I see this as a convenience for the student. I’m encouraging our counseling department to start using electronic media to provide some non-confidential assistance/advice and education planning.
— Dr. Bob Harris Jan 19, 10:09 AM #
I personally have experienced a surge in the e-mail exchanges with students over the past couple of years. I do get more e-mails than personal visitation by the students. Our’s a professional program, sometime students need to be in my office to get some help in solving the mathematically oriented problems, otherwise I like the e-mail questions beacuse an answer can be directed to all students.
— Naushad Ghilzai, Ph.D. Jan 19, 10:49 AM #
I taught journalism for seven years. One skill budding journalists need to develop is the ability to talk to people face-to-face or over the telephone to solicit information. Therefore, our faculty constantly advised students to speak to us in person rather than electronically. At one point, one of our colleagues refused to acknowledge student email.
— Mike McQueen, ex-professor Jan 19, 11:21 AM #
I teach contract law, a large subject which has a teaching team of several members. We ask our students to post appropriate questions to the course management system’s discussion board so that fellow students who may have a similar query can read the response. Most often another student posts a good or at least an adequate response. A member of the teaching team monitors the discussion board and posts responses and corrections as required.
— Gavin Moodie Jan 19, 10:30 PM #