Virtual office hours
To maintain methods of communication and support for students this post takes a look at how virtual office hours could be organised to offer consultation time. There are several different tools you could use to engage with students; this post will start with some of the benefits of using the Collaborate Ultra platform. We will show you how to set up and facilitate your virtual office hours below. Student instructions you could use can be found in the student guide to joining and viewing Ultra webinar sessions
- Collaborate Ultra allows a consistent student journey as everything happens within their module, so they will always know where to go.
- Students can see the scheduled session from directly within their module.
- Avoiding the expectation of 24/7 availability via an instant message system/email and use Collaborate Ultra to set specific times and dates.
The setup – the basics
(Skip to step 4 if you already have the tool Collaborate Ultra set up on your module and have completed the duo course)
Step 1 – Log in to duo https://duo.dur.ac.uk/
Step 2 – Click here to self-enrol to the Collaborate Ultra course. This will be your online guide that will always be accessible from within the ‘My Courses’ section once you self-enrol.
Step 3 – Activate the Collaborate Ultra tool and create the webinar link on the navigation. Instructions are on the above course or you can read the EDU blog post here.
Now you can move on to setting up your virtual office hour sessions
Step 4 – go to module/course
Log into your module/course and go to your tool link named ‘webinar’ on the left-hand navigation.
Step 5 – create session
Click create session
Step 6 – name the session
Set up the session with the name be sure to include day/time.
If you have multiple days and times list them in the title.
Step 7 – event details
Set the start and end date with the times they are going to occur for a single session.
If your office hours are reoccurring, you can check repeat session and choose every week and highlight the days your office hours will occur.
You have the option to end after X number of occurrences or choose an end date by using the dropdown.
Step 8 – session settings
The default role is Participant and Participants can: Share audio, Share video, Post chat messages and Draw on the whiteboard and files.
Click Save
Facilitating your virtual office hours
Ready to get started? Just join the session on the day and time you specified.
To Join:
Within your module on DUO go to the left-hand navigation and click on webinar. Within this navigation, you will see your created session links. Click on the session you want to join and a pop-up will appear to ‘join session’. Always direct students to join via the module as the external link should be used for external guests only.
Here are a couple of other things to know that will streamline your virtual office hours.
We suggest having a waiting slide up in the main room and invite the student to add their name the whiteboard, this would be the queue (example as shown below). The template can be found on the Collaborate Ultra Sandpit course under getting started or download from here (requires University login).
Privacy is possible. When students enter the session, everyone will have the group chat to participate, if they need to speak to you privately there are a few different options.
- If using the chat box is fine, you will need to open the chat by clicking on the purple arrow on the bottom right side of the screen. You can send them a private message through the chat box window by typing their name in the ‘find someone to chat with’ as shown
- If there is a request to have a private audio chat. You will need to move just the two of you to a breakout group. To watch how to move participants into breakout groups watch the video below or refer to the advanced section of the Ultra course.
The waiting slide stays visible to all new students joining and you will receive a notification.
*Please note you will need a module site to use Ultra. Feel free to test these instructions in your ‘Sandpit’ within your My Courses.