Gregor Kiczales, a computer science professor at UBC who teaches the Introduction to Systematic Program Design MOOC, explores the concept of online teaching assistant office hours to examine the emergence of the Internet as a new channel between learners and educators. “Moving the help session online means the TA and the student can both be anywhere they want, including at home,” Kiczales writes. “Right away this reduces constraints on when the hours are scheduled; it is easy to schedule them at night. It can also make scheduling more flexible.”
https://flexible.learning.ubc.ca/digital-learning-blog/it-aint-the-moocs-its-the-channel/