Activity
Guidance and help

Office Hour Scheduling via Google Calendar

Fikry Boutros

Fikry Boutros

Particularly helpful to facilitate the scheduling of office hours with students for teachers who need to meet students individually in short timeslots.

Share:

ACTIVITY PURPOSE

To facilitate the scheduling of office hours with students.

USEFUL FOR

Particularly helpful to facilitate the scheduling of office hours with students for teachers who need to meet students individually in short timeslots.

PREPARATION

Set up the appointment slots on your calendar and share link and etiquette with students.

INSTRUCTIONS

For Google calendar users,

  1. Create a new calendar and call it “Office hours for COURSENAME-SEMESTER”
  2. Create a new item on it – not an “Event” but “appointment slot”
  3. Save and share the link that appears there with students
  4. Inform students of the etiquette for booking and cancelling appointments.

Fikry Boutros demonstrates this in the video, and gives his students the following etiquette (extracted from his general Zoom etiquette):

  • Please upload a picture of you on your Zoom account. It will help your instructor recognise you faster and better; a face with a name helps.
  • If you don’t wish to open the camera during class, please do so in your one-on-one conference with your instructor. It’s important for your instructor to see you and to know who you are.
  • When you join the Zoom room for a meeting or conference, you may find yourself in the ‘waiting room’. Please be patient until the instructor is done with his previous meeting and lets you in.
  • If you book an appointment (e.g. for an Office Hour meeting or a conference), please be sure to show up on or before the time. This reflects professionalism and good class decorum.
  • Should you cancel an appointment for any reason, send a message to your instructor, apologising and explaining. You can do so through the calendar itself, which will free up the slot for other students to book.

DURATION

5 minutes.

ADAPTATIONS AND EXAMPLES

You can place the Zoom link (or whatever place you want students to meet you) in the “description” or “location” of the slots – otherwise, you can use the automatically created Google Meet link that Google calendar creates when someone books an appointment.

TECHNICAL REQUIREMENTS

Google calendar.

USEFUL RESOURCES

Do you have any suggestions? Please share them in the comments below.

Watch Video

ABOUT

  • Educator prep: None
  • Student prep: None
  • Asynchronous
  • Shared online space
  • Duration: < 5 mins

This activity is one of a series of activities from Equity Unbound, focused on equitable online community building. 

Find out more

Do you have an activity that you would like to suggest?

Do you have feedback or suggestions?

More activities

Learning path

Online Facilitation Refresher

Course

From Interaction to Engagement: Creating Participation Online

Resource

3 Ways to Make PDFs More Accessible

Course

Improving Feedback in Asynchronous Online Courses

Course

Setting the Path to Online Communities of Learning

Course

Humanising Your Online Learning

Course

Establishing the Foundations for Community Online

Course

Being Present in Your Online Teaching

Webinar recording

Facilitating Student Conversations in Webinars

Learning path

Community Building

Curated Activities

Guidance and help

Curated Activities

Reflective Activities

Curated Activities

Ongoing engagement

Curated Activities

Liberating Structures

Curated Activities

Setting the tone activities

Curated Activities

Introductory activities

Activity

Sailboat Retrospective for Reflection

Activity

Live, Love, Learn and Leave a Legacy

Activity

Roses, Thorns, and Buds 

Activity

Decolonising Academic Writing through Spoken Word Poetry

Activity

Origin Stories

Activity

Learning to Love

Activity

Getting at Metaphor

Activity

Checking in with GIF, Emoji or Meme

Course

An Introduction To Online Workload Management

Activity

Personalised Conversation Cards

Curated Activities

Warm up activities

Activity

Alternative Approaches to Grading

Activity

Guess The Topic Mingle

Activity

Ikigai: Help Students Find Their Purpose

Activity

Something Behind You

Activity

Auditory Affect

Introduction to...

Facilitating Synchronous Discussions Online

Introduction to...

Facilitating Asynchronous Discussions Online

Introduction to...

The Community of Inquiry Framework

Course

Designing HyFlex Courses

Resource

Exploring The New Normal

Activity

Creativity Booster: 16 Squares

Activity

Creativity Booster: An Ode to the Other Hand

Activity

Creativity Booster: 5 Senses

Activity

Creativity Booster: Yes, Let’s!

Activity

Ice Cream / Broccoli: Reflection on Enjoyment and Value

Activity

Create a Fake Photo Group Assignment

Activity

What We Don’t Know About Each Other

Activity

Share Music and Create a Class Playlist

Activity

Would You Rather?

Activity

Creating Escape Room Experience For Students

Activity

I Wish My Students / Teacher Knew

Activity

Using Metaphors to Express Thoughts

Activity

Using Dominoes in Teaching

Activity

Desert Island Songs

Activity

The Shape of You

Activity

Words From Your Names

Resource

Teach-in Against Surveillance event

Activity

What Can You Do With A…?

Top Tips

Tips For Increasing Engagement In Discussions

Narrated presentation

Small Steps to Engaging Teaching in the Big Online World

Podcast

Predicting the Great Snapback with Dr. Steve Joordens

Activity

Choose a Plant

Infographic

Wondrous Week One

Infographic

Fast Switch to E-Learning

Infographic

The Present Professor

Activity

Which Picture Best?

Infographic

Quick Guide to Online Student Engagement in Week One

Infographic

How to Show Your Presence in Online Classrooms

Infographic

Maximising the Use of Your Virtual Office Hours

Activity

Imaginary Buffet (or Potluck)

Activity

PowerPoint Karaoke

Activity

Tiny Tales

Activity

Cognitive / Exam Wrappers for Metacognition

Activity

Self-Assessment Tool for Social Justice in Teaching

Activity

Language Portrait

Activity

Lost in Translation

Activity

Wheel of Life for Student Self-Help

Infographic

The Path to Online Learning Communities

Infographic

The Art of Giving Feedback

Infographic

My Caring Instructor

Activity

Thick Greetings

Activity

Estimate Workload

Activity

Simple Metacognitive Activities

Activity

Tiny Demons / Drawing Monsters

Activity

Start / Stop / Continue

Activity

Survey Students Early in the Semester: Pre-Course Survey

Activity

Pass the Paper

Activity

Gratitude Journal

Activity

15% solutions

Activity

Two-Minute Paper

Infographic

Torrey Trust’s Technology is Not the Solution to Cheating

Checklist / tool

Trauma-Aware Teaching Checklist

Resource

Loglines

Activity

Appreciative Interviews

Activity

Pop-up Psychogeography Journey Journal

Guide

Choosing the Right Community Building Activity: Safety Tips

Guide

About Video Conferencing

Activity

While We Wait

Activity

What Kind of Animal are You?

Activity

Two by Three by Bradford

Activity

Troika Consulting – Adaptation for Class Community Building

Activity

TRIZ

Video discussion

Trauma-Informed Pedagogy & How is Your Heart?

Activity

Tour of Where You Are

Activity

Third Places for Ongoing Community Building

Activity

Theatre of the Oppressed: Opposites

Activity

Theatre of the Oppressed: Image Theatre

Activity

Teaching Ethics with Theatre of the Oppressed and Liberating Structures 

Activity

Surrealist Free Drawing Introductions

Activity

Studio Visits

Activity

Structured Dialogues

Activity

Share an Object From Home

Activity

Room 101

Activity

Purpose to Practice

Activity

Pass the Ball & How Do You Make Rice?

Activity

Meditation

Activity

Wild Tea / Mad Tea Party

Activity

Introductions: Story of Your Name

Activity

Human Scavenger Hunt

Activity

Four Ideas for Checking In

Activity

Daily Creates

Activity

Critical Uncertainties

Activity

Conversation Cafe

Activity

Collaborative Storytelling

Activity

Collaborative Literature Review Matrix

Activity

Authentic Open Letter/Video Addressing Students

Activity

Asynchronous & Synchronous Introductions

Activity

9 Whys of Liberating Structures

Activity

Spiral Journal

Activity

Annotate the Syllabus