Virtual Office Hours: Tutoring Distance Students in Statistics and Economics

1. Virtual Office Hours: Tutoring Distance Students in Statistics and Economics Steven C. Myers, Department of Economics, Dwight Bishop, Sayee Santosh Rajaman, & John Kelly, Design & Development Services The University of Akron Akron, OH 44325-1908 Myers@uakron.edu

2. Introduction • Value and Use of Office Hours • The Value of Office Hours for Distance Students • Present Technological Solutions • Past Instructional Technology Developments Ohio Commons for Digital Education 2004 Conference – March 9

3. Virtual Office Hours • Software Requirements for Students and Professors • Hardware requirements for Students and Professors • Hardware Requirements for the University • Conducting a Virtual Office Hours Session Ohio Commons for Digital Education 2004 Conference – March 9

4. 3 Motivations • Distance students do not have the same access to the professor as face-to-face students. • E-mail frustrates me when what I want to do is pick up a pen and write an equation or draw a graph. • “I can’t stop by your office, I am in LA” Ohio Commons for Digital Education 2004 Conference – March 9

5. Value and Use of Office Hours “Faculty members shall maintain office hours and establish alternative means of communication which are reasonable and convenient both for themselves and for the students whom they teach.” Office of General Council, The University of Akron, Rule 3359-42-01(C)(3) Student Rights and Responsibility. Ohio Commons for Digital Education 2004 Conference – March 9

6. Value and Use of Office Hours(Distance Learning Office Hours Requirements) “Whereas office hours are intended to facilitate communication between students and their professors; and “Whereas distance learning students want to be able to communicate with faculty members during the evenings and weekends; “Now be it therefore resolved that the distance education policy explicitly include a provision for office hours to be done online, as a percentage of the distance education coursed the instructor is teaching, meaning that the faculty member does not have to be physically in the office on campus for these online office hours.” Resolution of Distance Learning Policy and Faculty Office Hours, Resolution 01, 2003-2004 Academic Year Southeastern Louisiana University. Ohio Commons for Digital Education 2004 Conference – March 9

7. Value and Use of Office Hours “Some of your most effective teaching may occur during office hours.” Wilbert J. McKeachie's Teaching Tips: Strategies, Research, and Theory for College and University Teachers, 2002. Ohio Commons for Digital Education 2004 Conference – March 9

8. The Decline of Office Hours • Reason 1: Rising costs of student time due to working, providing dependent care and attempting to balance time in a two-worker family. Ohio Commons for Digital Education 2004 Conference – March 9

9. The Decline of Office Hours • Reason 2: The Internet creates a ready substitute for office visits through the use of • Email, • threaded discussion lists, and • remote submission of assignments. Students can time- and place-shift their need to seek a professor’s help. Ohio Commons for Digital Education 2004 Conference – March 9

10. Office Hours for Distance Students • Face-to-face students get to see the professor before and after class and stop into the physical office hours. • Distance students might use email, discussion boards and chat programs. • AOL, MSN, Yahoo, Netmeeting all fall short of the objectives. Ohio Commons for Digital Education 2004 Conference – March 9

11. Why worry … Richard Light’s two symptoms of students in academic trouble. • A sense of isolation from the community. • A student in trouble is unwilling to seek help. (50% of struggling students) Richard Light. Making the Most of College: Students Speak Their Minds, Harvard Press, 2001. Ohio Commons for Digital Education 2004 Conference – March 9

12. Virtual Office Hours • Chat • Audio and video • One or Multiple Students • Whiteboard or drawing surface • Digital Ink Technology (something to write with!) Ohio Commons for Digital Education 2004 Conference – March 9

13. Past Technological Development • Chalk-n-talk • Everything written in class • Overhead transparencies • Prepared slides • Ability to write • PowerPoint • Elegant slides • Interactive PowerPoint • Write on those elegant slides Ohio Commons for Digital Education 2004 Conference – March 9

14. Digital Ink Technology Myers, Steven C. "Six Uses of Technology to Improve Teaching and Learning," Poster Session AEA Committee on Economic Education, ASSA meetings, San Diego, January 4, 2004. http://gozips.uakron.edu/~myers/scholarship Myers, Steven C. "Digital Pen Technology in Electronic Technologies"  Good Practice Showcase, The Economics Centre of the Learning and Teaching Support Network (LTSN),  Universtiy of Bristol, UK, January 2004. http://www.economics.ltsn.ac.uk/showcase/myers_presentations.htm Ohio Commons for Digital Education 2004 Conference – March 9

15. Digital Ink Technology Aiptek Pen Tablet www.aiptek.com Ohio Commons for Digital Education 2004 Conference – March 9

16. Digital Ink Technology SMART Sympodium www.smarttech.com Ohio Commons for Digital Education 2004 Conference – March 9

17. Digital Ink Technology Tablet PC www.thetabletpc.net Ohio Commons for Digital Education 2004 Conference – March 9

18. Ohio Commons for Digital Education 2004 Conference – March 9

19. Software Requirements • Flash player • In over 90% of browsers • Free to download • URL - weblink Ohio Commons for Digital Education 2004 Conference – March 9

20. Hardware Requirements • Professors need some digital ink technology. • Video camera • Headset with microphone Ohio Commons for Digital Education 2004 Conference – March 9

21. Hardware Requirements - Server • Macromedia Flash Communications Server MX • Integrated into cold Fusion Application server (future) Ohio Commons for Digital Education 2004 Conference – March 9

22. Conducting a VOH Session • Professor shares a URL (within WebCT) • One click and you have joined the VOH session. • Lets see an example. Ohio Commons for Digital Education 2004 Conference – March 9

23. Steven C. Myers, Department of Economics Dwight Bishop, Sayee Santosh Rajaman, & John Kelly, Design & Development Services This paper and revisions: http://GoZips.uakron.edu/~myers The University of Akron, Akron, OH 44325-1908 Myers@uakron.eduBishop@uakron.edu Virtual Office Hours: Tutoring Distance Students in Statistics and Economics Ohio Commons for Digital Education 2004 Conference – March 9

24. http://GoZips.uakron.edu/~myers myers@uakron.edu