Student's decrease use of office hours can possibly correlate with
- a students overall grades,
- the perception of the faculty members ability to teach or even
- whether a faculty member is liked or not..:-)
Are office hours becoming a thing of the past for today's students? Maybe, the view that a specific time for meeting a faculty to discuss course work is the challenge? What are your thoughts?
In 18 years of university teaching, I can probably count the number of students who have showed up for office hours, whether in real time or even virtual office hours. It is nearly inevitable (and a known fact by quite a few other faculty I've spoken to) that if students show up in office hours, it is almost always the "A" level students who want to discuss paper ideas, something new they would like to work on, or Students whose grades are low and could benefit from extra assistance do not show up--unless it is about two weeks before the end of the semester and they want to know what they can do to earn a "C" or passing grade. Meanwhile, those students have been absent most of the semester or have done perhaps one or two assignments all semester; many have missed the midterm and the required paper.
Our Provost has now required no more than 30% threshold of students who (1) withdraw from a class; (2) get a "D"; (3) get an "F." Considering that faculty don't control withdrawals (not all withdrawals are due to poor grades). With this new limit in effect, I suspect that administration will begin to look more closely at office hours--how to do that is a mystery to me; however, the point is that grades can correlate with lack of interaction between student and faculty. The second point you make is also of concern to me since there may be a perception that faculty is not as competent if students don't feel they should even bother to show up for office hours. I have frequently met them outside my office hours, totally at their convenience, and even on weekends (I am often on campus to teach test preparation for graduate exams during weekends). I am available; students don't bother. You mention the challenge of the time frame--but virtual hours can overcome much of that and as I just said, I have agreed to meet all kinds of hours and days that I am not even in my department. The problem goes beyond the challenge to meet at a specific time and place.
I see above, Camille, that you are at Montgomery County? Isn't that Maryland not far from DC? I was born in Washington, DC and spent a lot of my adult life around DC in Alexandria, Hagerstown, Waynesboro, PA. I'm interested in whether or not you have these problems with office hours as I do (and as I suspect quite a few faculty have). We could have a huge discussion about the change in student motivation, attention (very selective), and other affective factors, but what the problem is remains a mystery to me. The students who consult with me frequently whether in person or through email questions are the pre-med and pre-engineering students. It is almost guaranteed I will see them and hardly anyone else. And they have the toughest academic schedules of all majors--yet they find time. I don't have an answer but I do worry about how administration will "read" this situation (the points you make above).
Aysha Bey
University of Alabama/Birmingham
Dear Camille, I think that students are becoming more independent learners, finding part-time jobs and allocating time for leisure even having a mid-week break on Wednesday. With the modern technology, relationships and societal changes also occured. Nowadays, students tend to come to office more if they do not find someone to share their problems. In fact they initiate with trivial talk and then they end up changing the subject if they feel that you are really listening to them. They tend to cooperate when they feel secure that they really know what you are expecting from them. For this reason we need to be more careful when they do approach us.
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