I've been thinking about office hours this week. I'm teaching at three different campuses, each of which requires two mandatory office hours a week, so six hours total. I have yet to have a student come to see me during said office hours, and it's extremely rare that anyone does. Largely because of my travel schedule, I tend to schedule office hours very close to class time: I can't drive an hour one way (or more, depending on traffic) to sit at my desk in my shared office praying for a student to show up. Also, many of my students are somewhat non-traditional: they have families, jobs, etc. and I suspect it's more convenient for them to come in just before or just after class.
At any rate, here's my question: are (mandatory) office hours a thing of the past? These days, with e-mail, Facebook, Skype, etc., do we really need to sit in our office waiting for students to show up? Most issues are easily addressed via e-mail, which is pretty convenient for both parties (if you're obsessive about answering e-mails like I am). I'm more than happy to set an appointment to meet a student, or catch up quickly before or after class. I've even scheduled short individual meetings with all of the students in a class to come meet about final papers or whatever.
Other things of the past: a student yesterday asked when, if ever, they can stop double-spacing their papers. I said you can stop whenever you want, as far as I'm concerned. To me, the reason we double-space papers is to give the instructor room to write feedback. I accept all of my submissions electronically and thus, can use the "comment" or "track changes" features in Word to give feedback. Personally, I like the look of 1.5 spacing. I now give word counts instead of page counts for final papers.
There was one other thing that occurred to me yesterday, and now I can't remember what it is... I'll update if I remember.
Thoughts?
At any rate, here's my question: are (mandatory) office hours a thing of the past? These days, with e-mail, Facebook, Skype, etc., do we really need to sit in our office waiting for students to show up? Most issues are easily addressed via e-mail, which is pretty convenient for both parties (if you're obsessive about answering e-mails like I am). I'm more than happy to set an appointment to meet a student, or catch up quickly before or after class. I've even scheduled short individual meetings with all of the students in a class to come meet about final papers or whatever.
Other things of the past: a student yesterday asked when, if ever, they can stop double-spacing their papers. I said you can stop whenever you want, as far as I'm concerned. To me, the reason we double-space papers is to give the instructor room to write feedback. I accept all of my submissions electronically and thus, can use the "comment" or "track changes" features in Word to give feedback. Personally, I like the look of 1.5 spacing. I now give word counts instead of page counts for final papers.
There was one other thing that occurred to me yesterday, and now I can't remember what it is... I'll update if I remember.
Thoughts?