Another idea from the folks at Gonzaga's Institute for Law Teaching and Learning:
Virtual Office Hours
Today was our first snow day at Washburn in a couple of years. It happened to fall only one week before my first-year students are due to turn in their midterm appellate briefs. Today I'd scheduled my last office hours before the last big "push" weekend, and I knew several students were counting on that time. So I did something I've never done before: I kept my normally scheduled office hours, but this time, in a TWEN chat room.
Yesterday, when I decided to announce these virtual office hours, I wondered whether they would attract a different group of students. I hoped to see some newcomers who had never (or rarely) come to office hours before. During the first several minutes of the session, I was glad to see some of my more regular students, armed with lists of excellent questions as always. And then a small victory: there were a few who had only ventured to my office once or twice before, and halfway through the session, two who had never come to office hours before.
To read the rest of this idea visit http://lawteaching.org/ideas/index.php.