Drexel University Resources Help Demystify Office Hours
New year, new quarter, new habits? If you haven’t been attending office hours in the past or felt overwhelmed at the idea of how to use them, you might be missing out.
Office hours are blocks of time throughout the week held by professors, advisers and others in the Drexel University ecosystem so students can drop in and get questions answered. It’s a great, informal time to make sure your thoughts are on the right path, or even to make a deeper connection with someone in a field you may be interested in.
“I’m a big fan, and I try to get people to go to office hours as much as I can,” said Archie Fernsby, academic coach and learning specialist within the Center for Learning and Academic Success Services (CLASS). “The thing I try to sell students on is that you get to make connections with your professors. These are your experts, and you can use your time to talk to them and make sure you’re getting their perspective.”
Finding office hours at Drexel
At CLASS study hours, Fernsby and other academic coaches sit in a co-working space and welcome students to drop in with questions to help figure out their study habits. Elsewhere on campus, office hours and blocks of time for dropping in abound.
Drexel President Antonio Merlo began holding office hours in fall 2025 for students, faculty and professional staff, during which small groups can pose questions and have them directly answered by the University’s top leadership. At the Pennoni Honors College, students can use the Undergraduate Research & Enrichment Programs’ UREP Drop-in Hours to learn more about undergraduate research and more. In Student Life, the SORC (Student Organization Resource Center) holds office hours to answer questions about meetings and how to reserve spaces, among other things.
The Counseling Center also provides time for informal conversations with a therapist during “Let’s Talk, ARC” events. During your meeting, the therapist will listen closely to your concerns and provide support, perspective and suggestions. It’s a great way to take a bit of the mental load off, ask questions and seek guidance for other resources or ways to find support, like learning coping skills or how to start therapy.
Classically, office hours are a time for students to check in with their professors, but they can seem intimidating. Monica Togna, PhD, teaching professor in the College of Arts and Sciences’ Department of Biology, talked with Usha Sankar, PhD, associate teaching professor of biology, who suggested that the name itself can throw students off of attending.
“She said that ‘student hours’ is a much better description, because students have said to her, “Oh, I don’t want to bother you while you’re doing your office work,” Togna said. “The name isn’t really welcoming, or doesn’t reflect the purpose of them. When I'm going over the syllabus, I point out when office hours are and I tell the students that these hours are for them. I’m going to be sitting there, and they can drop in for whatever they need.”
How to use office hours
Regardless of the name, office hours are there for you — don’t be afraid to drop in. They are a great time to get feedback on your thought process without consequences, said Fernsby, the CLASS academic coach and learning specialist, and you get experience asking a supervisor about something you don’t understand, which can help down the line in your career. Even if you don’t have a specific question, Fernsby suggests going to office hours and explaining your understanding of the week’s concept; that way, your professor can interject corrections.
“You’re getting to do two things: defining concepts for yourself, so it will be a lot easier to remember and apply them, and getting an expert opinion on whether the shorthand understanding you’ve developed for yourself actually makes sense,” Fernsby said. “They might be able to identify questions you didn’t know you had.”
The earlier and more often you go in the quarter, the better. Togna appreciates when students come to office hours early on, so she can put a face to the names in her class. Then, she can bring them into her lectures, making it more engaging by asking students what they think the next step may be. It makes class more like a conversation and builds a community.
“When I have first-year students, I tell them to think of their professors as a coach, or someone who’s going to walk besides you while you develop yourself,” Togna said. “You have to go out and practice it, but you can test your knowledge with me. It’s an excellent use of time, because they can know if they’re cooking with gas, but if they hit a snag, we can identify that and identify common misconceptions so they don’t turn into a problem later.”
Preparing to attend office hours
Fernsby likes to help set students up with a repeating study schedule to form healthy habits. If your homework that’s due on Sunday will take two hours, and office hours are on Wednesday, you should do an hour of homework on Tuesday so you can go to office hours prepared with questions the following day. Ideally, he suggests a lecture preview, attending class, and following up with a lecture review. To prepare for office hours, keep a document open while doing your review, and take notes with your own definitions of concepts, things you don’t understand, or a summary to narrate for your professor.
“If you have specific questions about your homework, make sure you’re bringing those up, but otherwise, I’ll have notes about that week’s concepts that I’ll narrate and ask for corrections,” Fernsby said. “They’re never going to just say yes, so even if you’re right, you’ll get bonus thoughts that allow you to make more connections. Learning is about making connections, so the more you can get those related thoughts, the more it’ll stick.”
Your professor is there to help you with material, but don’t expect them to be your personal tutor or to fully reteach you. Togna likes to help students make a plan to get back on track if they’ve missed a lot of class. She suggests students take the material a bit at a time, coming back to review what they’ve learned to make sure they’re on track, and she also can direct students to other resources that can help them if their struggles aren’t just related to class material.
“If I can help them with the material, that’s terrific, but sometimes I can also recognize that the problem is that you only read stuff over the day before, and that’s not enough,” Togna said. “I can help with recognizing struggles with different types of learning, and they can use their professors as a resource for finding what help is available for them. I can help identify a path to the Counseling Center, or CLASS, and be a liaison between them and other entities on campus that can help them.”
Finding benefits outside of the classroom
Office hours shouldn’t be utilized only when you’re struggling. Meeting with and talking to your professors regularly can help you learn more about opportunities and networking. Togna regularly talks to students about how to start volunteering in labs or how to approach research professors.
“We can talk about where you should start, and a lot of it is getting to know the students so you can help them and identify opportunities,” Togna said. “We can do a little bit of networking and help them put together their building blocks so they can get where they want to be. Office hours can be a good way to establish a relationship. It also puts your name in my head so that if an opportunity arises, I can think, ‘Oh, this might be something I want to pass on to this student.’”
Learning together
You can even network with other students who may show up during office hours. The best way to learn material is to talk about material, Togna said, and sometimes her office hours turn into lunch club, as students drop in to her office and talk about material amongst themselves as she supervises to make sure it’s accurate. Studying with others can feel awkward, but it helps with information retention.
“A lot of people don’t want to go to office hours because they’re afraid they won’t know anything, or know what to ask, but it’s important to have a bit of stress tolerance now, so we can feel a lot better later,” Fernsby said. “That can be challenging, but in terms of little investments that have large impacts on your overall grade, office hours are great. It might be a little awkward at first, but then everything’s easier in the end.”