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Teachers, do you have virtual office hours?

I am thinking about having virtual office hours (meeting and helping with students online) for my two classes. If you have virtual office hours, then how is it working out for you. Do students actually participate ?

Public Comments

1. I teach online college courses and have virtual office hours. It has worked out great! Also, many of the students are online during that time for their discussion portion of the class requirement.
2. I gave my students my school district email address as well as a personal address set up just for my students. They were encouraged to email drafts of papers and questions about anything we were doing in class. I actually received papers on time from students who were unable to be in class (usually because of illness). I read the long papers, not printing them out, and waited for the hard copy when the student returned to class. One student told me that she corrected some errors before printing that I had noticed in her email. That said, I will tell you that I taught in an all-girl academic select public school in Philadelphia. The girls took their classes seriously and I actually occasionally had an IM chat with one or two of the girls. Try it. Good luck. Mrs. G Retired HS English teacher
3. That sounds like a great idea! Even if only a few students participate, it should be worthwhile, don't you think? There's nothing stopping you from getting work done during this time, either. By the way, there's a really cool virtual whiteboard at dabbleboard.com. You should check it out (especially if you teach math.) It's awesome for tutoring because you and the student(s) can both draw/write on it to share diagrams and things like that.
4. I don't have virtual office hours, but I do have a "help-line" on the days before an assignment is due. Since I'm basically up and grading papers anyway, I make myself available for IM for last minute questions. I think it's one of the best things that I do. It opens things up to students who wouldn't think of asking questions in class, and it allows for me to do real time essay help. On the down-side, I'm probably encouraging last-minute work because they know they can wait and get help right before the assignment is due, but I justify that problem by realizing that the kids who are doing that are the ones who would not have turned a paper in or who would have horrible papers without the help. It's really a good thing in my opinion. Smokes, that dabbleboard.com app is super cool
5. My experience with virtual office hours has been the same as regular office hours -- very few people actually participate or ask questions. However, at least at the end of it I don't feel as though I've wasted my time. My classes have not been virtual though, perhaps that matters.