Preparing and Maximizing Office Hours
As a TA one of your most important responsibilities as you will be hosting weekly office hour where students can receive extra help. However, doing so isn't as easy as simply setting a date, time, and place for students to meet you. It turns out, conducting effective and engaging office hours where students come out with more than they came in with is slightly more complicated. Thus, this section aims to help you achieve this by going over how to prepare for your office hours, how to set boundaries between yourself and students, how to get students engaged, and how to properly guide students.
Setting Boundaries
Before even setting your office hours one of the first things you'll need to establish are boundaries.Many students will take the time to try to communicate with you via email or a platform unique to the class when they are struggling. This can happen during the day or very, very late at night. The amount of emails or questions you receive is tightly correlated to upcoming assignment deadlines and tests. Past TA’s have found that it is incredibly important to set boundaries and to make sure that you are not wearing yourself out.
It is essential to communicate what you are willing to do and not do. For example, if you are not comfortable helping a student in the early hours of the morning, let the students know. If you are a new TA, you may not know what boundaries you should set or how much is too much until it is too late. Some starting boundaries that other TAs have found to be help are
Not answering question past 11:00 pm or before 8:00 am
Not responding on the weekend or a certain day you deem to be "off"
Instant messages will not receive a response if student does not post on the class forum first
Setting Engaging Office Hours
Given you have established a set of boundaries, now you can proceed with determining when to host your office hours using what platforms.
When students ask for help but don't come to office hours
This might happening for a verity of reasons such as students do not simply want to, students do not know about your hours, students do not have time, or students have a time conflict. Some helpful strategies for setting and getting more students to engage in your office hours are
Send a class announcement prior to hosting office hours
Provide more than one time per week
Online office hours may be convenient for some students
Announce options to receive feedback on assignments or projects
Schedule one-on-one with students at the start of semester
Schedule Office hours around student availability.
When there are too many students in office hours at once
There may be specific periods of time when your office hours become overloaded with students, such as right before a scheduled test, before a major assignment deadline, or at the end of the semester. It will be hard to personally help more than a couple students at a time during a two-hour office hour. In this scenario, it may be more effective to prepare a group session instead of hosting a traditional office hours.
Group sessions are best utilized when they are focused on
Walking students through the concepts the assignment is teaching
Focusing on one specific concept students are struggling with
Asking students to come to a consensus on what topic they would like you to explain.
Additionally, before conducting group sessions, it can be important to make sure students know the office hours will not be one-on-one.
Utilizing forum platforms to facilitate class discussions
In the age of online learning, office hours are no long restricted to in-person help only. CCI is unique in that some professors use forum platforms such as
Canvas discussions
Discord
Slack
Google Meet
Through these platforms, students can also be encouraged to help other students.
Utilizing forum platforms for office hour prep work
Another use of these platforms is to prepare and post reference documents or problems with linked discussions. If you find yourself overwhelmed answering questions, this may serve as a buffer for students who skip the discussions and ask the TA directly for help. It can also be helpful to employ a system where students must walk through a "checklist" prior to asking for help. This helps students prepare questions to better help TAs understand what the student may actually be struggling with (cite Brown University).
Guiding and Helping Students
TAs invest in students by providing them guidance and by helping in areas of learning. Typically students might just need a nudge to better understand a concept to solve the problem on their own. An important skill as a TA is to understand the problem the student has and how to identify you are not connecting with them. It is important to be patient with students when they do not understand the explanation that you provided.
Signs that a student continues not to understand
You find yourself explaining a concept for what feels like the tenth time. The student may seem to disengage from you while signaling that they do not understand. What can that look like?
Cannot solve problems themselves
Student stares blankly or confused look
Student asks, “So, what is the answer?”
When guiding a student to an answer on a problem, it is important to assess whether they understand the explanation that you have provided. The points provided above are help you better understand signs that a student does not understand. It is especially important when helping students with programming assignments that you do not just fix their code.
Experienced TAs typically have a methodology for debugging problems to find the root cause of the error or point of confusion. It is important to know that as a TA, you can help students by allowing them to see how you approach figuring out what the issue is in a programming assignment or how they might approach a task given in an assignment. It is important to lead the student to the answer because that helps build the students confidence. In return, this student may help explain how they came to this solution to other students.
Struggling students may find themselves needing some affirmation to continue when they feel like giving up. This can be during a time when the student just does not understand your explanation or when the student begins to doubt that they can actually solve harder problems. Other students may come to you for advice unrelated to the class. Students might ask for advice on future course material, how hard another professor might be or for something personal. If you find yourself in need of more information, you can check out the chapter, Guiding students for success and well-being, for more information.
Examples of Encouraging Statements
You can do this
You are capable of being a great student
It is ok to ask for help
I believe in you
You do not have to use the examples above but it is important to encourage students, especially when they are struggling.