As we approach Thanksgiving we wanted to highlight ways to help students prepare for the upcoming transitions they may be facing. Some students will experience a disruption at Thanksgiving as they move home and/or experience a change in the format of their courses.
Consider using your office hours to help your students prepare for successful completion of the semester. Specifically, you can ensure that:
- students know the purpose and format of office hours, and know how to access them
- all of your students have attended office hours and know how and where to ask for help when they need it
- students know what they need to do, individually and/or in groups, between now and the end of the semester
- your project groups have realistic plans for completion of their projects
- your students have practiced the skills and/or worked with the technologies they need to complete the course.
Technologies tips:
- Use the Canvas Calendar tool to create appointment groups so that students can sign up for specific meeting times. This Canvas guide explains the process of creating appointment times.
- For large classes and/or review sessions, allow students to select which topics, homework problems, techniques etc. they need help with. Zoom has a new feature that allows students to choose which breakout room they want to join. Assign your teaching assistants to specific topics and label the breakout rooms accordingly. Students can then select which room to join and move freely between rooms. This Zoom tutorial explains how to manage breakout rooms.
Read our Implementing Online Office Hours guide for more suggestions for holding virtual office hours.
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