Office Hours

Office hours/time on campus (24)

In this category, terms outlined expectations for how distance faculty members spend their professional time, including office hours, committee obligations and the like. Twenty-four colleges included this term in their negotiated agreements. The AAUP also addressed office hours specifically in its recommended contract terms.

Examples

Observations. When distance educators express that teaching in this modality takes more time, email and other communications with students is one of the primary tasks mentioned (AAUP, undated b). In recognizing the ability to conduct office hours via email, telephone and other electronic methods, institutions recognize the unique needs of distance educators.

This researcher believes that distance education should, whenever possible, be treated like traditional courses. In this case, however, traditional courses may benefit from being treated like distance courses. In community colleges particularly, many students are juggling multiple obligations including work and family. It is frequently difficult for them to attend faculty office hours on campus and thus they may communicate more using electronic means, even with traditional faculty. If all faculty had the flexibility to have some of their office hours as online office hours, it might better reflect the reality of all instruction today.