Last year I held ‘student hours’ every week in my course to address the inequity that office hours can bring and provide more students with an opportunity to have a voice. Details/results in thread because it was such a meaningful experience.

For context, my class was 80 and I setup groups of 15 students to rotate through these student hours each week. Each group attended twice in the term and sessions were the first 30 mins of a 2 hour class (used to be 1 hour class).

This idea came after reading Brookfield’s book on critical reflection. I wanted to keep a ‘pulse’ on the course and get/give feedback in real time. There were many unexpected outcomes that happened as a result.

The most amazing thing was that students got to know a new cohort of students. They allowed themselves to be honest and vulnerable and I did the same thing. The sessions started with ‘how was your week’ and then moved into some prompts about what was coming up.

Every student participated each week and for many it gave them the courage to participate in the larger sessions. Once the rest of the class joined us for the remaining hour and a half, we updated the larger group about questions/concerns.

I realize class time is precious, but this was so valuable for so many reasons. We built community and we all learned to have some tough conversations. Overall, it was a really positive term overall. I am excited to continue this practice—F2F or online.