{"id":8594,"date":"2020-03-27T12:00:44","date_gmt":"2020-03-27T12:00:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.tees.ac.uk\/lteonline\/?p=8594"},"modified":"2020-03-27T10:45:22","modified_gmt":"2020-03-27T10:45:22","slug":"virtual-office-hours","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.tees.ac.uk\/lteonline\/2020\/03\/27\/virtual-office-hours\/","title":{"rendered":"Maintaining Office Hours in a Virtual Environment – Did you know?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Did you know you can maintain office hours using Microsoft Teams? Virtual office hours are a great way to host one-to-one sessions that you would normally host on campus. This could be used for a quick catch up, or even to go through your student\u2019s assignment.<\/p>\n

Start by setting out clear expectations of when your virtual office hours are going to be held. Ask your students to book onto a time slot so that you can manage this time effectively. By using Microsoft Teams it can be done easily!<\/p>\n

Create a separate\u00a0<\/span><\/strong><\/span>channel<\/b><\/span><\/span><\/h1>\n

It may be easier to set up a separate channel in a team to host these one-to-one sessions. All teams come with a “General” channel which all your students have access to. You could set up a separate channel within the Team where you will host your virtual office hours\/tutorials. You can change who has access to the channel, to add and remove students when their time slot starts and ends. This reduces the need to create numerous channels for each one of your students.<\/p>\n

Guidance on creating a channel in Teams can be found here: https:\/\/support.office.com\/en-us\/article\/create-a-channel-in-teams-fda0b75e-5b90-4fb8-8857-7e102b014525<\/a><\/p>\n

Create a meeting<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/h1>\n

Creating a meeting within Teams is a good way, not only for you, but for your students to keep track of their one-to-one session. Meetings can be created via the Calendar in Teams. More information on creating a meeting can be found here: https:\/\/support.office.com\/en-us\/article\/schedule-a-meeting-in-teams-943507a9-8583-4c58-b5d2-8ec8265e04e5<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

Good\u00a0<\/span><\/strong><\/span>Practice<\/span><\/span><\/h1>\n

Since this is a new way of working, give yourself time to test this idea before rolling it out to your students. Invite colleagues to a team and have a go! This is the best way to envisage what problems you may come across when doing it in real time.<\/p>\n

Make sure you know how to:<\/strong><\/p>\n