Students in an engineering class are getting the chance to hang out with their professor online for the first time at UF.
Dan Dickrell III is using Google+ Hangouts for additional office hours in his Engineering Mechanics-Statics class this semester. Students can either go to the lecture or view it online.
Using Google+ Hangouts, Dickrell or a teaching assistant can video chat with up to nine students at once and share documents.
Statics is a math-based class, and he said he plans to use the screen-sharing function to show problems.
However, because it is his first semester using Hangouts at UF, Dickrell will be using it to a limited degree.
He will announce chats on e-Learning throughout the semester, he said, but he will still offer in-person office hours and reviews.
"It will be pretty useful come exam time when TA and instructor help is in high demand," he said.
Statics student Will Smith, a 20-year-old aerospace engineering sophomore, already has a Google+ account and said he will probably use the Hangout feature.
"It's certainly a lot more convenient," he said. "I don't have to worry about running out of time between classes to get to office hours."
However, Japa Kulwatno, a 19-year-old materials engineering sophomore, said he doesn't think Hangouts will be as beneficial as the in-person office hours.
"When someone is watching how you answer, it's easier to correct them than going between a medium that is the computer," he said.
Dickrell heard about Google+ Hangouts through Keivan Zolfaghari, UF's Google Student Ambassador.
The 20-year-old food and research economics and psychology junior said he has talked to several UF professors about using Hangouts, but Dickrell is the only one using it so far. If professors held public Hangouts, they would only be able to see students' public information, Zolfaghari said.
Other universities are already using Google+ Hangouts. At Rice University, Teach for America used it to speak with a recruiter and corps members around the country, he said. The university president also took live questions via Hangouts. Zolfaghari also said students at Boise State University are using Hangouts for makeshift study sessions.
"Google Hangouts is just a tool in the toolbox to teach the class efficiently," Dickrell said.
