Office Hour Appointments that Drive Student Success: A How-To Guide

Let’s be real—office hours can be extremely unpredictable. 

Some days, you’ve got students lining up outside your door and emails with meeting requests flooding your inbox.

On others, you sit around waiting for students who never show. 🤷

But what if there was a way to take the guesswork out of office hours? Imagine a world where students can easily book time with you, where every appointment is organized, and no one slips through the cracks. 

No more chaos, no more no-shows—just smooth, stress-free scheduling. 

That’s where YouCanBookMe comes in. Let’s dive into how you can turn your office hour appointments from unpredictable to perfectly planned with a bit of help from an online scheduling tool.

5 Types of office hours appointments you can offer students

If you’ve ever wondered, “How should I use office hours?” the following list is perfect for you! Go through the types of appointments to see which ones will work best for you and your students. 

1. Group advising sessions

If you’re constantly answering the same questions from different students, group advising sessions are a game-changer. These sessions are perfect for course reviews, project discussions, or any topic where students can benefit from hearing each other's questions. Plus, they encourage peer learning—students often help each other out with insights you might not have thought of. It’s a win-win! 

2. 1:1 advising sessions

Sometimes, a student needs more focused attention, whether it’s to discuss a challenging assignment, explore career options, or just talk through a problem. 1:1 advising sessions are your chance to connect deeper, giving personalized guidance that can make a real difference in a student’s life.

3. Appointment-only office hours

Do you prefer a more structured approach to your day? Appointment-only office hours could be your new best friend. By requiring students to book in advance, you’ll always know who’s coming and when, allowing you to plan your time more effectively. This setup also helps students prepare better, as they know they’ve secured a specific time slot just for them. 

4. Walk-in office hours

Want to make room for last-minute questions? You’ll need to set aside some time for walk-in hours. 

These let students drop by when they need a quick chat or immediate assistance, which fosters open communication and builds rapport. However, be prepared for a little unpredictability—some days might be quiet, while others could see a line of students out the door. But that’s part of the charm! It’s all about being accessible when your students need you most.

5. Virtual office hours

Whether your students are spread across different time zones, or just juggling packed schedules, offering online office hour appointments ensures everyone can connect with you, no matter where they are. Students will appreciate the flexibility, and you can enjoy the convenience of meeting from wherever you are—whether it’s your office, your home, or even your favorite coffee shop.

Scheduling office hour appointments with YouCanBookMe

So, you’re ready to take the plunge and finally streamline your office hours? 10/10 choice. 

In the sections below, we’ll quickly take you through how to set up office hour appointments to suit your students and busy schedule. 👇

Create an appointment type

To add a new appointment type, go to your YouCanBookMe dashboard and click the pencil icon ✎ next to the booking page you’d like to edit. 

Next, click “Additional options” and “Appointment types.”There, you’ll be able to:

• Add an image
• Give your appointment a name
• Set the length of your meeting
• Write a description to help students select the right type of appointment on your booking page

Group meetings

For meetings such as course reviews, test prep, or project discussions, you might want to opt for group sessions rather than one-on-one meetings.

Group bookings will let up to 50 people sign up for one time slot. To turn them on, click “Availability rules” under “Additional options.” Next, click “Group bookings.”

You’ll see a pop-up asking if you’d like students to book more than one seat so they can sign their classmates up as well. To turn that feature on, click “Add booking form question.” If not, just select “No thanks.”

Now, you simply set the maximum group size from 2 to 50 and hit “Save all changes.” 

No more waiting around for office hours

Make it easy for students to book appointments that fit your schedule at any time, day or night.

Ask the right questions to better prepare

Want to make sure your office hour appointments are as productive as possible? 

Start by asking the right questions upfront! 

YouCanBookMe lets you customize your booking form so you can gather essential details before the appointment even starts. 

Ask students:

• What they want to discuss
• What materials they need help with
• Any specific questions they have

As well as the basics, such as their:

• Name
• Major
• Contact info
• Student ID number
• What courses they’re enrolled in

To set up your booking form, click “Booking form” under “Additional options.” Next, click “➕ Add question.” You’ll see a drop-down form with lots of different options to choose from.

Set up virtual or onsite office hour appointments

Now it’s time to deal with an important topic: location, location, location!

You can edit or add your location in the “What” section of your booking page settings. 👇

👉 Want to stick to traditional office hour appointments? To set up onsite hours, simply input an address or specific meeting place!

👉Want to boost student retention by improving accessibility? Consider adding virtual office hours!

To set up virtual meetings, you’ll need to select Zoom, Google Meet, or Microsoft Teams as the meeting location. If you haven’t already done so, remember to integrate one of those tools with your YouCanBookMe account. 

Once you connect your accounts, YouCanBookMe will instantly generate unique video chat links for each one of your meetings. 

To add the video chat link to your notifications and calendar events, simply include the corresponding shorthand code {GOOGLEMEET}, {ZOOM}, or {MSTEAMS} in your message. It’ll automatically pull up the correct video chat link. 

Manage your office hours

Once your appointments are set up, you need to ensure that everything runs smoothly and exactly as you want it to. 

YouCanBookMe comes with a ton of ways to customize your booking page. Here are a few that’ll come in clutch for office hour appointments.

• Add padding between appointments—Being booked back to back can be draining and affect the quality of support you can give each student. With YouCanBookMe, you can automatically add breaks between every office hour appointment. Use the extra time to prep or just for a quick bathroom or coffee break; after all, you’re only human!
• Set a custom booking notice—Add a minimum and maximum booking notice to prevent students from booking last minute or too far in advance. This way, you’ll have time to organize your day without any surprise visits!
• Limit bookings per day—To ensure all your students don’t sign up for office hours on the same day, you can limit your daily number of bookings. It’s likely you need to get other things done every day than just meeting with students.
• Password-protect your booking pages—If you’re working with a group of students—like a particular class or program—password-protected booking pages can be super helpful. With YouCanBookMe, you can create pages only specific students can access, keeping certain office hours exclusive to those needing them most. 

Set up notification emails and SMS 

Our school scheduling software lets you set up a couple of different notifications, making sure students are fully in the loop and never miss another meeting. 👏  

1. Confirmation email—After your students book a session, it’s time to send them their first office hour appointment email: the confirmation. 
   
   In your email, include the basics: the time and date, where you’ll be meeting (whether that’s your office or a virtual link), how long the session will last, and what topics you’ll be covering. If there’s anything specific they need to bring—like a project proposal or their latest paper—give them a friendly nudge to have it ready.
2. Reminder email—Your students have a lot on their plates: classes, extracurriculars, and maybe even a part-time job. It’s easy for them to lose track of things, so a quick reminder about their upcoming office hour appointment can make all the difference.
   
   In your reminder email, include your contact info in case any last-minute questions pop up. Don’t forget to drop in the time and place of the meeting, and if it’s online, add the link so they don’t have to dig through old emails to find it.

P.S. You can set up all notifications by going to “Notifications” under “Additional Options” and clicking on the type of notification you want to add. 

You’ll then see a screen where you can edit your message and see a live preview, like this office hour appointment sample reminder! 🪄

Automate feedback collection to improve future office hours

You successfully made it through another round of office hours! 🎉 

You may think it’s time to rest and relax, but there’s one last thing you’ve got to do that can make all the difference—send a follow-up email.

Follow-ups let you offer continued support even after the meeting wraps up. Use them to thank students for stopping by, send helpful resources, and check in to ensure they’re on track.

Plus, these follow-ups let you do one more crucial thing—collect feedback to ensure your office hours are constantly improving. 

You can ask students:

• If they found the sessions helpful
• What you can do better next time
• How often they’d like to meet  
• If they have any suggestions going forward

YouCanBookMe makes it easy to automate this process, so you can set your follow-up emails once and then gather student feedback without lifting a finger.

Let students easily book time with you

Trade the messy sign-up sheets and tedious back-and-forth emails for online scheduling that simply works.

And you’re done! 

And just like that—you’re all set to schedule your office hour appointments! 

Once you’ve got them set up, the rest runs smoothly on autopilot. No more juggling schedules or chasing down students—everything just works. 

After all, your time is valuable, and our scheduling software for colleges is here to help you make the most of it. 💪