Meaningful student–instructor interactions during an undergraduate degree course can have important effects on student learning. The format by which those interactions are made possible can vary greatly. We investigated the preferred modality of contact and students’ reasons for contact across several modalities in a first‐year biology course. We tracked student–instructor contact for two‐course instructors who team teach collaboratively (rather than sequentially) across two‐course sections. Both instructors had identical scores on student evaluations of approachability. Student–instructor contact was facilitated using five ‘student hour’ modalities: (a) in office by appointment, (b) 1 h per week, in office drop in, (c) 1 h per week, virtual chat, (d) by email, (e) 10 min immediately after class. Though email was the preferred method of contact, the period immediately following the class instruction was the most popular of the face‐to‐face options. We note significant differences in the distribution of workload across the two instructors and make recommendations for increasing the accessibility of student–instructor contact and for equity in workload to support student learning.

Metacognition—the processes whereby learners assess and monitor their progress in learning (metacognitive monitoring, MM) and use these judgements of learning to make choices about what to study in the future (metacognitive control, MC)—has been shown to be beneficial to learning. However, effective learning also relies on metacognitive knowledge (MK)—that is, students’ knowledge about effective study strategies and how to employ them. Few students receive explicit in-class instruction on these topics. Here, we explore if an online instructional guide, which includes information about evidence-based study strategies, example questions for self-testing, and a study calendar to help regulate timing of studying can effectively teach MK to improve performance.While it is unclear if the online instructional guide was related to increases in MK, MM, and MC, we did observe benefits to student performance, particularly in highly anxious students on high-stake assessments such as the final examination. Future research should seek to understand how students were engaging with the guide and how the nature of the engagement impacted their study strategies.