By Dennis Carter, Assistant Editor
This is an excerpt from ‘Virtual Office Hours are Catching On’ in the December 2008 edition of eCampus News:
Higher-education official said online office hours could help change that. With students accustomed to communicating with friends and family online, professors are more likely draw students to office hours if those sessions are hosted via he web, advocates of the practice say.
Bonnie Willy, an assistant professor in the IT department at Ivy Tech Community College in Indiana, said her school’s online office-hour program has bolstered the frequency and length of teacher-student conversations over the last two yeas.
Willy, whose college uses Wimba’s Pronto program to host virtual office hours, said she still requires freshman to meet with her face to face for long-term course scheduling, but during the semester, Q&A sessions attract dozens of students to office hours via the web.
When students gather online, she said, peers bring their various approaches to problem-solving to the forum, and they sometimes answer student questions before the professor responds.
“But I can always take them through click by click whenever they’re stuck,” she added.