Virtual office hours are suited for specific, brief questions that arise when completing an assignment or writing a paper, Rawal said. Virtual office hours solved some of the limitations of regular office hours by allowing students to directly reach professors without being in their offices. He recognized greater faculty-student interaction through the website, but attendance at his office hours did not drop, Wilson said. IEI is designed to suit the lifestyles of a new generation of students raised with computers. According to the specific features of each Web site, students can discuss publicly online in chatrooms or with real-time.
Students also can post questions and comments on class bulletins or send messages to professors.
The access to computers, however, has been a concern to the administrators, said Wilson. The task force plans to better notify the students about the various computer labs on campus, Wilson said. The biggest problem that they are facing right now is student overflow. It is one of the labs funded by the Instructional Enhancement Initiative.