Using Office Hours Effectively
As the end of the semester approaches, TAs frequently find themselves balancing many competing demands. As students prepare for finals, TAs are often flooded with a higher volume of requests for office hours, study help, review sessions and the like. This comes on top of the already constant demands of your own research, coursework, and teaching.

A conscientious TA may feel overwhelmed with the increased appeals for face-to-face help from students. It may become difficult to balance the time that students want and the time that you have free to give them. Additionally, if office hours are well attended by many students with diverse issues, a TA may feel pressured in trying to deal with so many personalized questions. To that end, this piece will consider several tips to help you navigate your office hour time as effectively as possible during the busy pre-finals season.

• Set limits on your time.
  You should expect to hold regular office hours for about two hours per week, and encourage students to make appointments if they cannot attend. You are not, however, required to rearrange your schedule dramatically. Encourage students to set meetings with you at times when you can easily be at campus, or even immediately before or after class, when you are already available and actively thinking about the course material.
  
  While it is important to assist your students in getting the help they need to understand course material, it is also essential to remember that your graduate research is your primary responsibility. Also realize that if you are tired and overextended, you may be less helpful than if you are relaxed and rested. Think seriously about how to manage your time and consider ways to organize your schedule efficiently.



• Answer questions electronically.
  In an era of fast technology, email offers a viable way to communicate with students without the extra responsibility of making a trip to campus or to your office. It also allows you to respond to students’ questions when it is convenient for you. This may eliminate the sometimes-stressful job of trying to coordinate busy schedules in order to arrange a meeting.
  
  In courses where Sakai, or a similar educational online forum is used, it may be helpful to have “online office hours,” where students are guaranteed to find you in the course chatroom. This allows students to get real-time help, but perhaps at times when it may be inconvenient for you to meet with them on campus.



• Create an office hour “pool” with other TAs teaching the same course.
  Often, TAs are frequently assigned to one section of a large multi-section course. Chances are, these TAs already have office hours covering the same material as you, but at a different time. If possible, network with these other TAs and cross-advertise office hours. If you are willing to help their students at your normal office hour time, and other TAs are willing to help your students, this reduces the number of extra office hour appointments required of all TAs involved.

Beyond scheduling difficulties, it may also be challenging to determine how to organize your time between competing student interests when office hours are well attended. Some ideas to help better manage time spent in office hours include:

• Maintain an office hour to do list.
  When students come to office hours with various questions, it may be difficult to address all their topics during one limited time. To better manage time when office hours are well attended, it may be helpful to maintain an “office hour to do list.”. As student suggest topics for discussion, add their requests to the communal to do list. You may organize related questions together, and keep the list visible on a chalkboard where students can see and add to it. If students see something similar to their issue is already on the list, they may be content to wait until you get to that topic, instead of altering the flow of group discussion. Students may also organize their time according to the list: if they see that a topic they would like to discuss will be addressed much later, they may go work and return when it is time to tackle their specific concern.



• Have students teach each other.
  One of the best ways for students to truly understand material is to have the students explain what they have learned to others. If many students come to office hours with different concerns, it may be possible to temporarily assign your students to groups where at least one student in each group understands a tricky issue and can explain the homework problems to others. You may rotate between groups to check on their progress and offer suggestions. Alternately, you may choose to keep students in one large group, but ask students to volunteer to explain a tricky problem or issue while you act as a student. This strategy can be fun, and free you up to ask or address more tricky questions for others in the room.



• Hold an organized group review session.
  As exams approach, students may be overwhelmed with reviewing an entire semester’s worth of material. As they go over many diverse topics, it may be fruitful to schedule a group review session. Such a session may be 2 or 3 hours in length, scheduled at a time that works for as many students as possible. You may comprehensively touch on a wide variety of topics from the whole course. This can either be done as a pre-planned lecture where you choose sample exercises from many different areas of a text, or it may consist of a question and answer session, where you suggest a topic, and student may ask whatever questions they have regarding that material. Depending on class size and enthusiasm, group review sessions could also be organized creatively in the form of a game. (For example a template for jeopardy power point can be downloaded from http://www.graves.k12.ky.us/tech/jeopardy_instructions.htm.) Whatever the method, a common block of time where you are guaranteed to cover many topics in an organized manner can be an effective way to address many concerns at once.

As the end of the semester approaches, it is common to feel pressured with many competing requirements and demands. However, office hours do not need to be an overwhelming stress. Set limits on your time, and make effective use of electronic communication to help budget your energy appropriately. When in office hours, make an effort to structure group time effectively and in an organized way, but most of all have fun!