Learning and Teaching During Office Hours

Linda Acitelli, Beverly Black & Elizabeth Axelson
Center for Research on Learning and Teaching

Office hours can be an extremely valuable part of your teaching experience and their impact should not be underestimated. Technically, office hours are those times of the week you are expected to be in your office and available to confer with your students.

Office hours are crucial to creating good relations between you and your students. Read more »

Prepared by: the Voices Technology and Best Practices Team

Overview

This document was originally developed to provide a set of guidelines in the use of social media applications within VOICES Community, but we believe it has wider application for the University of Michigan. The rapid growth of social media technologies combined with their ease of use and pervasiveness make them attractive channels of communication. However, these tools also hold the possibility of a host of unintended consequences. To help you identify and avoid potential issues we have compiled these guidelines. They are examples of best practices from various institutions and are intended to help you understand, from a wide range of perspectives, the implications of participation in social media.

Things to Consider When Beginning to Use Social Media

Applications that allow you to interact with others online (e.g. Facebook, MySpace, etc.) require careful consideration to assess the implications of “friending,” “linking, ” “following” or accepting such a request from another person. For example, there is the potential for misinterpretation of the relationship or the potential of sharing protected information. Relationships such as faculty-student, doctor-patient, supervisor-subordinate and staff-student merit close consideration of the implications and the nature of the social interaction. The following are some guidelines to follow in these cases. Read more »

How Does Your “Online Identity” Impact Classroom Climate?: Strategies for Managing E-mail Communications and Social Networking Sites

Chad Hershock and Jeffrey Chun
Center for Research on Learning and Teaching