How do students spend their time outside of class?
For many students, college classes can be a struggle. They provide a lot of challenges, stress being one of the most common among all students. Understanding course content, and completing course content doesn’t come as easy to some as it does for others. A major key to success is the work that students put in outside of the classroom. According to a survey, students spend an average of 3.3 hours per day, aside from class, on schoolwork. Professors’ office hours and the writing center are two resources that can be vital to the success of students in rather difficult courses. Sophomore, David Schmitz says that these resources give him security regarding grades, and allow him to clear his head. “I usually feel better about myself afterwards and am glad to get it done, especially when the professor helps out on assignment and you learn something from the meeting,” Schmitz said. Unfortunately, students do not take advantage of these resources nearly as much as they should.
In a survey taken by many students attending SUNY Oswego, nearly 85 percent of respondents admitted to using the Writing Center twice or less. Over 45 percent of students indicated that they have only visited office hours two or fewer times. One interesting thing to keep in mind is that there were no freshman that took this survey, so these are all students who have had at least a year to use these resources for their benefit.
The Writing Center, located on the first floor of Penfield Library, offers students who seek assistance in written assignments. The tutors that work there help students work their way through the writing process and help break down the assignment to see the direction in which the paper is going. They also help to write bibliographies in the exact format required by the professor. While they do provide quality assistance, they do not want to be seen as a place where students just give them papers and expect the tutors to do it for them, work still needs to be put in.
One reason students may be skeptical of using the Writing Center may be experiences that others have shared with them. Jake Litwin, a junior, got a paper reviewed and edited by the Writing Center. However, when he got his paper back, he had received a much lower grade than he expected. “I was disappointed because there was a lot of changes that were made and they were highlighted in parts of the paper that I screwed up on, so I don’t think I’ll be returning to the Writing Center after that experience. It unfortunately stressed me out a lot because it was an important paper and I thought going there would really help out but I just felt more stressed afterwards.”
Senior, Michael Stern, had an enlightening experience at the Writing Center when the woman editing his paper “tore his assignment up,” but appreciated the help in the end. “The criticism was necessary and I would absolutely recommend going to the Writing Center. Seeing the improved paper really boosted my morale and motivated me to continue to improve.”
Along with the Writing Center, another great resource is the office hours of professors. They set time aside certain days during the week to give students the opportunity to ask for help and seek advice on coursework. It seems like a no-brainer, one-on-one with the professor and a very good chance at improving your grade, who wouldn’t go?
Well, according to Professor Benjamin Allocco, students rarely ever come without coercion. “Probably 2 to 3 students in total visit office hours each semester on their own time. Generally, students will show up if I tell them you might want to meet about something specifically in an assignment, but if I make a class wide announcement asking if anyone wants more feedback there is little to no response,” Allocco said. Also, students do not seem to be returning to office hours if they do attend. “Usually it’s just the one time, students don’t come back because usually the meetings are project based and they had specific questions about why they got a grade on something. I think the main reason I get students to come to my hours is because I specifically email someone saying, you missed a class please stop by my office hours so I can run some things by with you. So I feel they usually don’t come back because they feel that the situation is dealt with.”
Professor Allocco’s comments are pretty interesting in the fact that it seems, that unless he puts a strong effort in reminding students to come to his office hours students will very likely not even attend. It creates this question, why don’t students utilize the hours?
Nicholas Wallace, a senior, says that he feels nervous when talking to his professors. “I don’t go to office hours a lot. I usually only go if I’m required to meet or I really need help on an assignment. I don’t like attending because I feel awkward with the professor and I feel a little intimidated because I don’t want to say anything that could negatively impact my grade, so I have to be very wary of what words I use.”
Wallace admits to avoiding office hours for the exact reasons that Professor Christine Hirsch eludes to when listing reasons students do not go to office hours. “If you ask students they will say that they are afraid of me…they think of reasons not to come in, such as, She’s mean and she frightens me. And that’s a really lousy excuse because what happens when you get in the real world and you have to ask your boss for a raise and time off for something.”
Hirsch, similar to Allocco, also struggles to get students to show up to office hours. “I would say about 10 percent of my students come to office hours each semester.” Obviously, a common theme among office hours turnouts is the lack of attending. Hirsch had an interesting belief on why this is an issue. “Truthfully, I believe that a lot of it is that students just have other priorities and they don’t want to come in for whatever reason, they think they can do better themselves. They think it’s better to ask forgiveness then permission, so they’d rather wait,” Hirsch said. Among these other priorities include, sleeping, hanging out with friends, other schoolwork and working, as seen in chart three schoolwork and hanging out with friends were the among the most common answers.
It’s important to maintain a social life, but it’s also important to make sure you’re doing as well as you can in your classes. Hirsch made another point when talking about how important she believes students think office hours are. “I think it’s a low priority for a lot of students which is a darn shame because if you were to come in right now and say, “Professor Hirsch, I’m having a problem with my thesis. I’d make sure before you left this office you’d have a good thesis.”
Where a student’s head is makes a difference in decisions they make, and that definitely should be considered when thinking about what causes students not to go to office hours. They don’t want to feel “intimidated” or “nervous” when attending office hours. They want to know that they can be comfortable and not have to worry about making their grade worse. Nick Wallace highlights this perfectly with this quote, “Usually it’s something that gets me worried because I obviously don’t want to fail a class but it puts a lot of stress on you because at times it can be intimidating meeting with some professors.”
When assessing student wellness stress is obviously one of the biggest points and Wallace’s beliefs can be a valid reason as to why many students don’t attend. Yes, there are the handful who don’t care, but many may struggle with anxiety and being that this is something they feel intimidated by, it would explain why students may not be showing up.
While it is clear that many students don’t go to office hours, there are some that have made a habit of making sure they go. Junior, Michael Riccardi, has made it a point to go as often as he can. “I believe office hours are very crucial to a student’s academics. I go four to five times a week depending on which class it is. Most professors have been helpful in the visits I’ve had so I think that office hours are very helpful and I would suggest going as much as you can,” Riccardi said. While Wallace points out that he gets nervous when attending Riccardi brings up and opposite point, and how he feels relief after his meetings. “It takes a lot of stress off of me because I usually feel better after meeting about something I’m unsure of and I get help on some course material.”
In student Nicholas Piscitello’s experiences he’s learned that office hours can indeed be helpful. “During my time here at Oswego I’ve realized office hours can be useful, depending on the professor and how they organize their hours and what they do in their hours. For my Italian class my professor was amazing he was very helpful and worked through what I needed help with the entire time.”
However, according to Piscitello that isn’t always the case. “Then one time I visited my calculus professor’s hours and he wouldn’t really explain anything to me and wasn’t that helpful overall. So mainly I’d say that, yes office hours can be helpful but some professors are definitely more helpful and engaging than others.”
It is evident that students who do go to the Writing Center and office hours see results, good or bad. Over 50 percent of students surveyed said that they felt that they received a better grade after taking advantage of those resources. Compare that to the number of students who rarely, or never, use the Writing Center or office hours and something does not quite add up. If they are as effective as the chart below illustrates, why are students not using them to their benefit?
Success in college is a key factor in allowing for students to feel calm and relieved to remove stress that the work brings. Michael Stern’s experiences support that claim. “It allowed me to relieve the stress of the paper after I received a good grade and being stress free is already so rare so you cherish it even more when you have that moment that’s just what good grades can do for you,” Stern said. Visiting these out of class resources can be a vital part in relieving stress from the rigors of college life. It can help to provide not only better grades, but peace of mind during nerve-wracking times.
