Engaging in Office Hours: A Study of Student-Faculty Interaction and Academic Performance

Abstract

Both students and instructors have somewhat negative perceptions of office hours. Students fail to attend office hours on a regular basis for substantive and intrinsic reasons. Instructors are often discouraged with low attendance in office hours and consequently may fail to invest a significant amount of time in reaching out to students. This study explores the connection between office-hour attendance and academic performance in political science courses. For eight political science courses over four years, we record the number of times students visit office hours and their course grades (N = 406). Our findings indicate that office-hour visits are positively correlated with academic performance. In providing quantitative evidence that office hours can have a real and significant effect on academic performance, we hope this study may encourage instructors to actively invest in office hours. We conclude the study by providing four simple strategies instructors may implement to encourage engagement with students in office hours.