Student Question: Office Hours

Dear Students, I have had one or two students contact me in the past few weeks with some confusion about office hours. This was my response:

I think there might be a misunderstanding in the way the office hours work for students. I have office hours for students every Friday and that is the only day that I commit to answering questions from students. A few times a year I need to skip one Friday. Usually twice in the summer and once during Western Christmas Season. I do my best to answer questions before Friday if they are short (like "What e-mail should I send this to?" or "Where is the link to the student Facebook site?"). If a student has a tech support question (they cannot access a file) I try my very best to get back to them within 12-hours but sometimes if the problem is complex it takes longer.

However, if I do answer an e-mail before Friday, this is done on a voluntariy basis by me and is according to the time I have available that week.

However, on a regular basis, as a rule, I have student office hours ONLY on Fridays. Tests used to be corrected once a month, but to make things more convenient for students I changed it last year to once a week. Any Friday you may IM me, call me or e-mail me and I will respond on that day. Or you can e-mail me before Friday and I will respond on Friday.

Keep in mind that one reason I specify Fridays is because I want students to know that if they do not hear back from me that something may have been lost - or sometimes mis-filed. A few times I have dragged an e-mail to the "student" box and it was mis-filed in another box. Mistakes and Internet errors do happen so I want to make sure students know that I am responding to them on Fridays.

Hope this helps!

Blessings & Health.
Karima