Do you find office hours underutilized or unproductive? Do your students know what office hours are for? Join us for this workshop to discuss how to co-create experiences that minimize stress and make way for intentional, meaningful, and productive uses of office hours for you and your students. We will review relevant PSC CUNY contract obligations and explore how instructor and student positionalities—such as first-generation, international, or BIPOC identities—shape office hour experiences. Participants will work together and leave with creative strategies for developing their office hour pedagogy.

This workshop was offered in a hybrid, synchronous mode as part of TLC’s Fall 2023 Programming. The workshop and materials were developed by Kristi Riley and Manju Adikesavan.

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Materials

All materials on this page and in the linked Google folder are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike (CC-BY-SA) 4.0 International Public License.

This folder contains outreach materials, workshop plans and slide decks: Materials Folder

Agenda

Introductions & Overview

Please complete the pre-participation survey

Origins of Office Hour Pedagogy

Slido Activity: One Word Office Hour Descriptions

You can submit as many answers to each question as you want

1. What describes your experience with office hours as a student?
2. What describes your experience with office hours as an instructor?
3. What activities or tasks do you do during office hours?

What does the PSC Contract Say about Office Hours?

1. Required hours
2. Guidelines
3. Follow up questions for PSC

Padlet Activity: Contractual Guidelines vs. Lived Reality 

Co-Creating Office Hours with Student Buy-in

1. Why don’t students utilize office hours?
2. Reimagining what office hours can offer students
3. Centering instructor and student positionalities

Padlet Activity: Strategies for Co-Creating Office Hours 

Open Discussion & Collective Problem Solving 

1. Resources
2. Exit slip