Purpose: This video discusses the importance of organizing office hours and how Canvas calendar may be utilized as the organizing medium.
- - Abstract Note from Authors: The pandemic has certainly brought new challenges to higher education! Some of these include adjusted teaching practices and content delivery methods. Connecting and engaging with students is more important than ever to their academic success. However, over time many disciplines have witnessed a decrease in the number of students utilizing faculty office hours. This trend is perhaps a cumulation of multiples reasons related to students currently not spending the same amount of time on campus compared to the past. Students are often working more than one job, caring for family, or serving as a caregiver. Also, online course offerings have increased and are a popular choice. During this shift in higher education based on current events and student desires, the need for instructor-student interaction has not changed. Students still need opportunities for this engagement. Studies have shown that instructor-student engagement is extremely beneficial in retention, meeting course objectives, and successful course completion. Virtual office hours are one way to maintain this engagement. But what is the best way to encourage the use of virtual office hours? One best practice is to create appointments for student sign-up. This presentation discusses virtual office hours and demonstrates a complete “how-to” create appointments within Canvas.
Difficulty Level: Medium