Hello Geology Majors,
I hope you are doing well as we work through the fifth week of the Spring 2023 semester. Yesterday, the class schedule for the Summer 2023 semester was published on MyRed, and you gained access to the Summer 2023 semester in the Enrollment Scheduler. On Monday, March 6th, registration for the Summer 2023 semester will start, and the Fall 2023 semester schedule will be published on MyRed. You will also gain access to the Fall 2023 semester in the Enrollment Scheduler on March 6th.
Now is the time to start thinking about and making plans for the upcoming semesters. Additionally, it is has been brought to my attention that a significant number of you have holds on your summer 2023 and/or fall 2023 semester registration, and these holds cannot be removed without a meeting with me. The time is now to get on my schedule.
Three weeks ago, I wrote about four different things that I believe you need to do to help fully engage with your classes: 1) maximizing course attendance, 2) reading textbooks and other course materials, 3) completing weekly reviews of course materials, and 4) visiting course instructors during office hours. This week I want to focus on the important of visiting course instructors during office hours.
As I mentioned last week, there are many courses instructors who will leave time for questions during class time rather than covering practice problems or problems similar to homework assignments. I also wrote that this makes a course instructor's office hours very important. So, what are office hours that are held by your course instructors?
While course instructors have flexibility with how to use their office hours, most course instructors hold office hours as dedicated time for students in one of their courses to come ask questions. These questions can be about anything that you need help with, and depending on demand, this could be one on one time with your course instructor. This means that office hours could be an opportunity for a course instructor to "tutor" you about the course material and the kinds of problems on your homework assignments. Thus, this is a perfect opportunity to get help if you are having difficulty connecting your lectures to your homework assignments.
Office hours are also a great time for course instructors to share tips about how to succeed in learning the course material and how to succeed in their course. Several years ago, I worked as a teaching assistant for an entry level Meteorology course, and the course instructor shared with the class that every student who meet with him after the exam raised their next exam grade by between a third and a full letter grade (i.e., a C to a C+, B-, or B). He also shared that he would make time in office hours or by appointment to meet with everyone in the course, and there were 95 students enrolled. This is one of the best examples that I have of how much our course instructors are willing to do to see that students succeed in their courses.
Unfortunately, office hours have been very underused over the past several semesters. Course instructors have talked about how they do not see any students during their office hours. This is one of those times where we cannot help you if you do not seek help, so I would strongly encourage you to visit your course instructor's office hours. This is an additional part of engaging with a course that you really need to do.
There is one more part of course engagement to discuss, the weekly reviews, and this is something that I will cover next week.
For the Spring 2023 semester, I am taking in-person, Zoom, and phone meetings in 45-minute blocks from 8:30 am to 12:15 pm and 1:00 pm to 5:00 pm every weekday outside of my drop-in advising hours, and I am taking drop-in meetings via Zoom only on Mondays and on Fridays from 1 pm to 3 pm.
You can schedule a meeting with me by using the Student Success Hub via this link, by calling the College of Arts and Sciences Academic and Career Advising Center at 402-472-4190, by calling me at 402-472-4319, or by emailing me at dpellatz@unl.edu. You can find instructions for how to access and schedule meetings in the Student Success Hub system here. You can also find information about my virtual only drop-in meetings at https://cas.unl.edu/drop-in-advising-schedule.
Best wishes, Doug
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