2025 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Motivations and barriers related to post-pandemic office hours attendance among biomedical engineering students were examined in this study. Data were collected through surveys administered to students in two core biomedical engineering courses at a mid-sized, private, research-intensive (R1) university. Through inductive analysis, three primary themes were identified: academic factors, social/psychological considerations, and logistical reasons. Network analysis was employed to uncover relationships between these reported motivations and barriers. Assignment-focused study was determined to be the dominant motivation, while issues related to crowding were cited as a significant barrier. Social and psychological barriers, with intimidation being prominently mentioned, were found to substantially impact attendance. For one course, an intervention focused on inclusive office hours practices was implemented, and a post-course survey was also administered. These data showed that intimidation as a reported barrier substantially decreased. While demographic differences were not determined to be statistically significant after correcting for multiple comparisons, trends were observed suggesting that peer interactions might be valued more highly by first-generation students, and higher levels of intimidation might be experienced by female students. These findings underscore the importance of addressing both structural and interpersonal dimensions of office hours design to create more equitable and effective academic support systems in engineering education contexts where mastering interdisciplinary content presents unique challenges.