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> Typically, professors announce office hours during which they will be available to answer questions, so this is not an issue. True. Also true, students have
by chiefalchemist 4y ago
> Typically, professors announce office hours during which they will be available to answer questions, so this is not an issue.
True. Also true, students have other classes.
To students raised in an async on demand world the concept of static office hours is fairly foreign. Certainly not top of mind.
- UncleMeat 4y agoOffice hours are a compromise. A professor can provide you with individualized help but in a timeboxed manner. One class is no more than something like 20% of a professor's time, either because they are spending most of their time on research or because they are teaching a huge pile of courses as an adjunct. Having professors sit on slack all day ready to respond to asynchronous questions from students is simply not an option.
- sokoloff 4y agoIsn’t the “a” the entire point of asynchronous communications? (That no one has to sit around all day to respond to them, as the medium is fundamentally async. If a few back-n-forths suggest that escalating to a synchronous medium is needed, that can still happen, but I’d bet well over 50% of initial contacts could be handled effectively totally async.)
- UncleMeat 4y agoYes and no. My wife is a professor. In the experience of her colleagues, students who want slack/email feedback don't actually have the same definition of "asynchronous" that professors (or you) do. The number of emails received at 11pm regarding an assignment due as 12am is frankly outrageous. There is an expectation of extremely high availability when it comes to these kinds of interactions. So many professors create a blanket "come to my office hours" approach rather than trying to train students to understand that it might take them 24 hours (or longer - on weekends) to respond to an email.