Office hours need to be structured really well, in order to get the most benefits for students as well as the instructors. This is a common problem in many universities, there are not many free open-source platforms for conducting Office Hours, so this is my small contribution for a cause.
The goals for the instructor users, will be to list a number of office hour slots on their schedules and must make two types of office hours – open house hours which will be for larger group discussions and topic reviews etc, and one on one office hours where students can ask specific questions about topics and assignments that they are unsure about. The second goal is to be able to create new courses for students to join.
The goals for student users are to be able to join courses which they want and to schedule office hour appointments with the instructors (either one on one or open house). They will only be able to schedule office hours for courses they have joined.
Here's a list of interesting problems I've worked on:
- Students don’t usually get the capability to book Office Hours in advance, which is needed at times. There is a need for dedicated slot booking.
- Instructors cannot serve all the student requests, because sometimes, a student will take up a lot of time and other students will not get a chance at all, which can be frustrating for both of them.
- Students face issues with the estimated wait time when they plan to join Office Hours, so they have to wait uncertainly. Sometimes they don’t get a chance to interact with the instructor at all.
- Instructors get asked a lot of repeated questions, so they need some kind of platform where they can take notes about student questions, and move commonly asked questions to FAQ