Student Perspectives on Office Hours
As LeVar Burton once said, You don't have to take my word for it. Five of CTE's undergraduate student teaching consultants collaborated on this set of advice for instructors interested in connecting well with their students during office hours.
Organizing office hours around specific themes, including but not limited to assigned readings, exam preparation, project guidance, or test corrections, helps students understand what they can expect to cover and discuss upon attendance. This encourages participation throughout the semester, and in addition, it ensures large groups of students can still achieve their goal and have their questions answered due to the focused nature of the meeting. Sometimes, open discussion office hours will be the way to go, but other times, especially when students may be faced with a challenging task, setting a theme or focus of the session and making it known beforehand presents a streamlined and time-considerate approach.