Jump to content

Professors and Office Hours


Texsox

  

9 members have voted

  1. 1. How often are your professors in their offices during their office hours?

    • Never
      0
    • 25% of the time
      0
    • 50-50 they will be there
      2
    • Most of the time
      2
    • Everytime
      2
    • Waffles and Fried Chicken
      3


Recommended Posts

QUOTE (FlaSoxxJim @ Oct 31, 2008 -> 01:03 PM)
I provide my phone number as well, along with a warning not to call me after 10 pm. Email solves most things anyway, unless somebody is bringing in a 6-pack of Guinness as a bribe gift for the prof.

 

We got email when I was a freshman, but you had to go to a campus-wide computer lab to check it. My sophomore year we got an internet connection as a campus. Email wasn't used by too many people, let alone profs. I wish it had been, that would have been nice.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Oct 31, 2008 -> 01:14 PM)
We got email when I was a freshman, but you had to go to a campus-wide computer lab to check it. My sophomore year we got an internet connection as a campus. Email wasn't used by too many people, let alone profs. I wish it had been, that would have been nice.

You old bastard. You went to college before emails. :lol:

Link to comment
Share on other sites

QUOTE (FlaSoxxJim @ Oct 31, 2008 -> 01:03 PM)
I provide my phone number as well, along with a warning not to call me after 10 pm. Email solves most things anyway, unless somebody is bringing in a 6-pack of Guinness as a bribe gift for the prof.

Would I have to actually show up to take your class?

 

True story. I knew one of my professors before I was a student. We had a mutual friend and I would occasionally share some stories over some expensive sippin' tequila. When I finally had an opportunity to take one of his classes, I was 13 points short of an A on an 800 point scale. I needed 720 and came up with 707, the second highest score in the class. His reaction when I went to talk to him? Damn, that's too bad, I was really pulling for you. You going to be at the picnic Saturday? :bang :lol: I had to love his honesty.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I don't go to office hours much, but every time I've gone they've been there, which is nice.

 

For you professors out there, does a student attending your office hours (e.g. showing they care enough to ask for extra help) give them any extra benefit when it comes to grading, etc?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

QUOTE (dasox24 @ Oct 31, 2008 -> 04:08 PM)
I don't go to office hours much, but every time I've gone they've been there, which is nice.

 

For you professors out there, does a student attending your office hours (e.g. showing they care enough to ask for extra help) give them any extra benefit when it comes to grading, etc?

 

If they show up with the aforementioned Guinness, then yes absolutely. :D

 

Seriously, I'm more along the lines of Tex's prof - the grade you're going to get from me is the grade you earned. Percentage-wise, you've got to be within a percentage point of making a grade before I'll even consider a bump. And you're only going to get that bump if you haven't been a paon in my arse all semester. ;)

 

I sound like a ton of fun, don't I?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

QUOTE (FlaSoxxJim @ Oct 31, 2008 -> 03:23 PM)
If they show up with the aforementioned Guinness, then yes absolutely. :D

 

Seriously, I'm more along the lines of Tex's prof - the grade you're going to get from me is the grade you earned. Percentage-wise, you've got to be within a percentage point of making a grade before I'll even consider a bump. And you're only going to get that bump if you haven't been a paon in my arse all semester. ;)

 

I sound like a ton of fun, don't I?

 

Do you ever look at the grade distribution in making that determination? What I thought was compelling, beyond the really good tequila, was I earned the second highest total out of 90 students that started. (He posted accumulative points via student ID.) I figured two students should have gotten A's, the rest deserved what they got

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I am in my office for office hours probably 98% of the time. I try to make sure I never schedule anything to conflict with them. However, with email, few students take advantage of office hours.

 

If a student comes by, it can help them if they are borderline for a grade, but the "content" of the meeting (as well as the Guinness) certainly makes a difference. For example, if you come by my office and say "I haven't read the chapters yet, but can you explain them all to me?"...it's probably going to hurt your case rather than help (that happened to me this week). If you have legit, insightful questions (even "dumb" questions are ok) that are based on a misunderstanding of the material or not totally understanding the text and/or lecture, it definitely has a positive impact on my impression of the student. Coming to office hours to kiss-ass doesn't help, but legitimately wanting to learn does, if that makes sense....and, yes, I can usually tell the difference between ass-kissing and legitimate interest.

 

As for grading, my school recently switched to plus/minus grading which means that almost a third of my class every semester is "close" (within 1%) of the next highest grade. Generally, I don't bump anyone up unless there are pretty extreme circumstances. The grade distribution is a factor only if the assignments and exams are not fair, but my distributions tend to be rather consistent, especially if it is a class I've taught before.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

QUOTE (Disco72 @ Oct 31, 2008 -> 04:11 PM)
If a student comes by, it can help them if they are borderline for a grade, but the "content" of the meeting (as well as the Guinness) certainly makes a difference. For example, if you come by my office and say "I haven't read the chapters yet, but can you explain them all to me?"...it's probably going to hurt your case rather than help (that happened to me this week). If you have legit, insightful questions (even "dumb" questions are ok) that are based on a misunderstanding of the material or not totally understanding the text and/or lecture, it definitely has a positive impact on my impression of the student. Coming to office hours to kiss-ass doesn't help, but legitimately wanting to learn does, if that makes sense....and, yes, I can usually tell the difference between ass-kissing and legitimate interest.

That's what I figured... thanks.

 

I've only been to my teachers' office hours a few times in my college career, but every time has been for legitimate questions. Like you said, email is normally good enough to get any questions answered, unless it's some in-depth stuff.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...