I was asked by 2 classes to open up office hours on an extra day, Fridays. Oh, Professor P., we'd come more often if it was on Fridays. Yeah, afternoons. Do that. That's great.
I don't have to tell you, do I?
I've had 2 Friday office hours so far.
Who did I see?
Just the nice man who empties the garbage. We talked about the Super Bowl.
Time to cancel those extra office hours, or at least make them "by appointment," with a 24-hour-prior deadline for scheduling appointments.
ReplyDeleteI will admit this: In six years of teaching, I have had only one student show up for office hours. Two years ago, I cut my required 2 hours per week into one scheduled hour and one "by appointment" hour.
ReplyDeleteStill, no students.
My significant other has created a theorem for this. P(S) = 1/(N).
ReplyDeleteP(S) is the probability that anyone will show up; N is the number of people who have said they are coming.
It can be clearly shown that as the number of people e-mailing ahead goes to 0, the number of people actually showing up to bother you goes to infinity.
At my institution, most profs tend to schedule their office hours right before the classes they teach, and use them as prep-time.
ReplyDeleteI get the impression, though, that many undergraduate students seem to think professors spend 9-5 hours in their offices, except for teaching commitments. This is a commuter campus and a great many of our 'profs' are adjuncts with shared offices -- it's almost as rare for me to find a given prof in his/her office as it is for a student to show up during my office hour.
Do your office hours by apt only, then if they make an apt and dont show up deduct points from their "participation" grade.
ReplyDeleteI have office hours 'cause I'm required to have them, but students are allowed to buttonhole me any time. Mostly I'm happy with students keeping appointments, but there's always the one or two that tick you off. Fortunately, I usually have something that has to be done in my office at that time, anyhow.
ReplyDeleteMy (our) office is pretty quiet, so I bring in work to do.
ReplyDeleteI don't have an extra chair in my office. Some faculty think it's funny, but why crowd the small space in my office/storeroom? I can always find a chair very fast; no one ever stops by during office hours anyway!
ReplyDeleteI hate hate hate-hate-HATE how EVERY time I am generous to students, I am made to feel sorry I did. You'd really think I'd learn, sooner or later, no? Terry, I recommend you get other work done on those Friday afternoons, much like I trust you already do during your other office hours.
ReplyDeleteCall them out in class, ask them why they wanted additional office hours if no one is coming.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteAnd, furthermore, our student evaluations still include something like the following:
ReplyDeleteThe instructor is available during his/her office hours (check one)
Never - Rarely - Sometimes - Frequently - Always
According to my student evals, I am "always" available during my office hours, but I have no idea how they know this. It has been years since I saw a student during office hours. The absurdity.
I agree with Contingent Cassandra; if they won't show for Friday office hours those become "by appointment" times. If you can't get out of it, I would: get a ham radio license and chat up the local 2 meter repeater, or talk to the truckers on CB, or bring a small tv and watch daytime schlock programming, or make armpit music and tape it so you can make a soundboard and crank call your students for not showing up.
ReplyDeleteWe are required to have 15 office hours a week. Why? Why? No one comes. No one. Why? Why? I sit there for 15 hours a week (OK, more than that, since I actually am there from about 9 a.m.- 5 p.m.), and no one comes unless I've assigned them to do so. I'm available in my office for practically 30 hours a week. But if I don't email a student back at 11:20 p.m., then my evals indicate that I am not available to students. Why? Why?
ReplyDelete