Defend against services like Chegg, CourseHero. Build student confidence. Improve learning outcomes. OfficeHours is a research-backed, virtual teaching assistant designed to provide just-in-time academic support to students with a focus on improving learning outcomes, building conceptual understanding, and creating an equitable learning experience for all students. OfficeHours blends automated tutoring with supervised instruction with a view to recognizing the effort and progress made by students as they work on homework, rather than simply assessing the correct ompletion of the problem. Thus OfficeHours replicates the in-person assistance provided by instructors in a collegiate setting during their 'office hours'. Furthermore, by providing quality help immediately when it is most required, OfficeHours serves as a strong deterrent to pervasive use of services like Chegg, CourseHero which may short-circuit the learning process and/or compromise academic integrity.
How It Works
OfficeHours provides research-backed learning aids such as step-by-step solution guides and randomized variations of problems that the student is stuck on. If the student continues to struggle, the answer to the problem is also provided at the student's request. This builds student confidence and fosters deeper learning of foundational concepts. OfficeHours is powered by a combination of automated tutoring intelligence and the oversight of seasoned collegiate educators. Assistance is limited to a reasonable number of problems every month, thus engendering independent learning and self-reliance.
Here is an example of an Office Hours solution guide:
Benefits
OfficeHours can help you achieve:
- Reduced student use of cheating sites that compromise integrity and the learning process.
- Greater student engagement by building confidence in problem solving.
- Measurable improvement in outcomes by providing support when students need it the most.
- An increase in the productivity and impact of your overburdened teaching assistants.
Educator controls
As an educator, you may disable OfficeHours for any assignment at any time. Additionally, student subscriptions to OfficeHours are completely optional for each student and may be canceled anytime. We are also designing educator dashboards that will provide educators with granular insight into which problems students are struggling with and require the most help with.
Cost
OfficeHours is available to students on a pay-as-you-go monthly subscription that provides flexible access to this academic support based on individual student needs. Subscriptions are optional for every student and may be cancelled at any time.