Take-Off Jabber

Description

What is Take-Off Jabber?

Take-Off Jabber are 10-15 minutes dedicated to jabbering about anything and all course-related questions students may have.

Why after the session?

Usually, students are warmed up by the end of the session and have more specific questions. Set aside some time after your session for students to ask questions, or talk to you about ideas for a thesis or a project that they are working on.

If questions are relevant for everyone, you can ask the student to post the question in the forum, which you will answer there (again). This way, you can involve the person who asked, either online or in the next session.

Note
Use cases

Teacher Presence is important in all courses.

MINI: You can use these tips quickly and with little effort in your current teaching.

10-15 minutes after a session (the time you spend on being available is the time you used to spend to run from one room to the other).

  1. Inform students that you will be available for about 10-15 after the session for casual discussions or any questions related to their studies.
  2. Ask them to bring a concrete question, topic, or issue.
  3. Invite students to take the opportunity and show that you're looking forward to speaking to them.

Be proactive and make time to talk to you with a welcoming and maybe curious tone. Take-off jabber is especially useful at the beginning and end of the semester when questions tend to arise. If there are no pertinent issues to discuss, try to be open to talk about other non-topic related topics and set an informal and casual tone with the students to build trust. This will carry over to the more formal discussions during the session. Make explicit what you will probably be doing anyway: students come to you and ask questions about the exam, some formality, the lecture set-up, the home work or discuss a study project with you.