Office Hours Overview
Pawtograder’s office hours feature allows students to request live help from course staff. Student requests go into a queue, and multiple staff members can be working concurrently through that queue, assigning themselves to help students as they become available.
Students are encouraged to make public requests for help, so that other students can also benefit from the discussion.
Office Hours Queues
Instructors can create multiple office hours queues to provide different types of help. For example, if a class is coordinated across multiple campuses, there may be in-person help queues per-campus, and a cross-network virtual help queue.
Help Request Templates
Instructors can create help request templates, which are pre-filled help requests that students can use to request help. This is useful to help prompt students to ensure that they have completed any expected troubleshooting steps before seeking help.
Templates include:
- A template name (e.g., “General help request”)
- A description explaining what information students should provide
- Pre-filled placeholder text guiding students to include relevant details
Pinned Discussion Topics
When students create a new help request and your course has pinned discussion posts, the system automatically displays a “Before you request help…” section with pinned discussion topics from the course discussion board. This feature:
- Encourages students to check existing answers before joining the queue
- Surfaces instructor-highlighted posts that address common questions
- Shows related posts with an expandable “Show All Related Posts” option
- Reduces wait times by helping students find answers independently
Pin important FAQ threads and common troubleshooting posts on your discussion board to automatically surface them to students before they request help.
Providing Help
When a staff member is working on the queue, they should click Start Working to indicate that they are available to help. This is a helpful indicator for students, and also allows instructors to see that staff are logged on and ready to help.
Select a help request from the queue, and click Take Assignment to indicate that you are actively working on it.
Text and Video Chat
Staff can communicate with students through:
- Text Chat: Built-in messaging for quick questions and code sharing
- Video Chat: Click Start Video Chat to open a video call with screen-sharing capabilities
After the staff member has started the video chat, students can click the Join Video Chat button to join. The video chat window opens in a popup.
When a student has an active help request, it follows them around the site. They’ll see:
- Their current queue position or status
- Notifications when staff assigns to help them
- Video call invitations with a prominent “Join Video Call” button
This ensures students never miss updates, even while browsing the discussion board or other course pages.
Office Hours Status and Schedule
The office hours interface includes:
- Office Hours Status Card: Shows whether office hours are currently active and provides a course-level description of office hours
- Per-Queue Cards: Displays information for each help queue, including current wait times and staff availability
- Weekly Queue Schedule: A calendar view showing when each queue is scheduled to be active, with live “Happening now” highlights for currently active queues
This helps students understand when help is available and which queue to join based on their needs.
Demo Queues
Instructors can create demo queues for testing and training purposes. Demo queues allow staff to practice using the office hours system without affecting real student help requests.
Rich Notifications for Students
Students receive comprehensive notifications for their help requests:
- Browser notifications: Desktop alerts when request status changes
- Title bar updates: Browser tab title shows queue position
- Sound notifications: Audio alerts for important updates
- Favicon changes: Visual indicator in browser tab
Students can test notifications and manage notification permissions directly from their help request page.
Resolving Requests
A help request can be marked as “Resolved” by either a staff member or a student.
Feedback and Analytics
After a help request is completed, the student can provide feedback on the help provided. This feedback is visible to instructors only and can be used to:
- Monitor quality of assistance provided
- Identify areas for improvement
- Recognize excellent staff members
