American River College’s Associated Student Body discussed student senate office hours and the challenge of learning without lectures in asynchronous classes during its meeting on Oct. 8.

ASB members said they want to have office hours where students can ask questions of the student senate. The ASB members proposed many different ways to hold office hours such as on Zoom, Google Meet, or Discord.

ASB came to a unanimous decision to table the office hours idea until the meeting on Oct. 15. 

ASB member Silvia Garcia began a discussion on asynchronous classes, which do not have live or recorded lectures. 

“I think that the lecture should be tied more towards the professor,” Garcia said. “It’s a little bit more personal than just having a list for students to YouTube something that a professor already did and trying to learn from there.”

Other members of the board agreed with Garcia that asynchronous classes are difficult when there is no lecture material from the professor.

ASB President Stacey Burrows said that the reason for this is because asynchronous classes are not required to have lectures. If students want to make sure they have lecture material then they would have to take synchronous classes.

ASB Supervisor Brett Sawyer said that the board should reach out to the academic senate because faculty needs to hear about this issue.  

“For them, I get it. It’s easy; it’s convenient. They have their own issues going on at home, [a] personal life, [so they] post the readings online,” Sawyer said. “They need to be reminded of how it impacts you all.”

For more information about ASB and future meetings, visit the student government website.