For the past several years, I have experimented with having online office hours. I have a special AIM account that I put on the syllabus. I tell students that while I don’t schedule my time online, if they see me there then they know I’ve made myself available to them.
Today Dr. Alex Halavais (who seems to be providing all sorts of blog fodder for me lately) shared his version of online office hours. He’s live streaming video of himself, from home, via UStream. Office hours in UStream work like this:
- professor turns on vid cam (from home, office, sailboat)
- video and audio streams to anyone on the WWW who accesses the URL
- visitors to the stream can be anonymous & type in questions
- visitors could chose to log in using UStream or OpenID, if desired
- visitors type in an open streaming chat to communicate with professor & others on site
This is too cool for school.
I asked Alex what he thought about the ethics of student privacy if one were to do this in her real campus office hours. He said he would post a sign & advise the student upon entry that this was streaming on the Internet. You can liken it to having the door open during office hours because people in the hall can overhear what is happening inside the office. If the student has something private to discuss (grade, personal issue, etc) then you can turn the camera off. Simple.
Benefits:
- professor doesn’t HAVE to be on campus for office hours
- students don’t have to physically make it to obscure campus location to talk to professor
- some students have the same questions so answering in an open forum helps all
- courses which are taught via the Internet (distance learning) enable more personal communication with professor
- no special account necessary to view stream or type text questions
- extends office hour audience to colleagues (almost all of Alex’s “visitors” were other professors)
- may increase student comfort with visiting office hours (anonymity, lack of geographic constraints or campus parking space!)
Drawbacks:
- possibly reduces the “drop by” of former students, with whom you often have great interactions
- reduces the personal attention paid to single student that occurs when student visits professor for one-on-one office visit
- back channel of text chat means there are two conversations occurring at once (video & text)
- retains the class power structure of professor talking AT student, not having a conversation WITH the student
- requires webcam tech & good Internet connection by professor
- may reduce student comfort with visiting office hours (unsure of tech, shy, etc)
Yes, benefits also show up as drawbacks!
What do you think about these online office hours? As a professor, would you do it? As a student, would you use it?
Kaye, thanks for sharing this idea. Office hours by video makes sense, especially if it cuts down on responding to e-mails. I would much rather talk than type with students. I think keeping at least an hour a week of in-person time is good to do as well to offset the drawbacks of video hours.
And congratulations on your recent publication!
Dr. Sweetser,
While you are speaking with a student over the stream and other students want to speak to you, do you merely put up a busy message or do they just come in the chat room? I wanted to know the logistics because it’s a cool idea but if it is an open chat where multiple students come in, then problems could arise. If this is so, then the willingness to ask a question to the professor would be hindered.
Eh, I don’t think I would like visiting with a prof via streaming video.
I did, however, LOVE the opportunity to instant message with you.
Maybe it’s a comfort factor with the video. But if I have a question/concern I need addressed immediately, e-mail or IM is perfect. If I want to SEE you, I’d rather stop by in person. If it’s a matter of getting to campus, I’d still rather e-mail or IM.
From the student perspective, I guess I don’t see the benefit of sharing my questions with the world. And I wouldn’t hang out in your video office hours just to see what someone else might ask. Maybe for that purpose it would be better to have a FAQ on a class blog or other outlet.
Regardless, I know students appreciate how forward thinking you are when it comes to technology!
Debbie: if a student were with me in real life then those in the chat would just be able to hear our convo & wait for me to finish. If many students were in the chat room they would all wait turns to ask questions.
Karen: Great perspective. I can, though, see how talking more about up-coming test material might be interesting to all.
I took a little poll in class today & a good number of folks said they liked the idea so I might try it this semester before an exam.
I like the idea of online office hours. It is especially nice for those of us who do our work at odd times.
But, I still like face to face time too.
My boyfriend teaches philosophy and holds his office hours at the ERC downtown!