Setting up Office Hours in Teams and Bookings

Instructors who host office hours can use Microsoft Teams and Bookings to empower students to reserve a time to meet with them. This guide will offer multiple methods for setting up office hours.

Example 1: Drop ins and no-appointment visits

Not every type of office hours is best served by Microsoft Bookings. You may consider using a more traditional setup if you intend to have any of the following:

Drop-ins, not requiring appointments, multiple students, or unpredictable times

In this case, the best practice is to communicate with your students that you are available during a certain time frame on certain days, and have them call you directly in Teams. You do not need to set up a meeting ahead of time. If you send Chat messages in this direct call, this private chat will persist after the meeting for you and the student to reference later.

You have the option of declining, or a delayed answering of the call, to respect your privacy and time. A student will be able to see if you are in a call already, and can choose to send you a message. You can add the student to the meeting if appropriate or wait until you are done with your current meeting to start a new meeting.

https://teams.microsoft.com/l/call/0/0?users={email address]
example: https://teams.microsoft.com/l/call/0/0?users=jonathan.husky@uconn.edu

Example 2: Virtual office hours during a dedicated time

This model is best if you will be offering your student discrete times that you will be available for office hours.

Example criteria

This guide will show how to set up an office hours appointment system with the following example criteria:

• The instructor is meeting with only one student at any given time.

• The office hours are conducted on a predictable schedule.

  • In the case of our example, this will be Mon & Wed 8-10am, Thurs 3-4pm for the Fall 2026 semester.

• The office hours are conducted virtually.

• The students have the option for a quick meeting or a longer meeting if needed.

Instructions

1. Navigate to https://book.ms and log in with your UConn email if prompted.

2. Click Create meeting type to get started.

   Open

   

3. Add the details to customize your meeting type. For our example, we will be creating a 10-minute meeting option first.

   1. Title: MUSI 3895 office hours (short)

   2. Location: Teams meeting

   3. Duration: Custom - 10 minutes

      Open

      

       

4. Under Schedule customization, select Use custom availability hours. Set the start and end dates of the semester as well as the time slots that you would like to be available.

   Open

   

5. Expand the advanced options. Set the start time limit to 10-min intervals. This allows students to book every 10 minutes (e.g. 8:00, 8:10, 8:20, etc.)

   Open

   

6. Once complete, click Save.

7. Your new meeting type will appear on the Bookings homepage. Repeat these instructions to create a half-hour option for students who need more time. Keep every setting the same except for the title, which you will call MUSI 3895 office hours (long) and the duration will be set to 30-minutes. Once complete, click Publish booking page.

Example 3: In-person office hours at any time during the work day

This model is best if you will be often in your office and don’t mind students stopping by at any time. The best practice if using this model is to keep your Outlook calendar up-to-date and to set your working hours (e.g. 8-4, 9-5) accurately.

Example criteria

This guide will show how to set up an office hours appointment system with the following example criteria:

• The instructor is meeting with only one student at any given time.

• The office hours are offered to any student of any class actively taught by the instructor

• The office hours are offered any time during the work day.

  • In the case of our example, this will be 8am-4pm Mon-Fri.

• The office hours are conducted in-person in 20-minute increments.

Instructions

1. Navigate to https://book.ms and log in with your UConn email if prompted.

2. Click Create meeting type to get started.

   Open

   

3. Add the details to customize your meeting type. For our example, we will be creating a 10-minute meeting option first.

   1. Title: In-person office hours

   2. Description: For my MUSI 1108, 1109, 3895 students.

   3. Location: MUSB 108

   4. Duration: Custom - 20 minutes

      Open

      

4. Under Schedule customization, select Use my regular meeting hours. Now is a good time to check that your hours are properly set in Outlook. To do so, click See regular meeting hours. This will open a new tab. Once set, return to the previous tab.

   Open

   

5. Expand the advanced options. Set the start time limit to 20-min intervals. This allows students to book every 20 minutes (e.g. 8:00, 8:20, 8:40, etc.)

   Open

   

6. Once complete, click Save.

7. Your new meeting type will appear on the Bookings homepage. Once complete, click Publish booking page.

Share your Personal Bookings page with your students

Once your page is published, you can share its link with your students. Any public meeting types that you have will appear here.

1. Click the Share button on your Bookings homepage, then Copy link.

2. The link is likely long with many characters. You may consider shortening it at s.uconn.edu.

3. Publish your link in your syllabus, on HuskyCT your email signature, or wherever else you intend for your students to access it.

Open

This is what users will see when they navigate to your page

Turn off your Bookings page

If you’re going on vacation, the semester is over, or you are otherwise taking a leave, you can temporarily deactivate your Bookings page so that you will not be available to be booked.

1. On the Bookings homepage, click the ellipses icon, then Turn off your bookings page.

   Open

   

2. The page will now be disabled. To publish it again, select Publish booking page.

   Open

   

Related Articles