Students, like many of their professors, dislike change. Much of the student dissatisfaction with last semester’s shift to “remote instruction” ultimately derives from the fact that online education is different from what they had previously experienced. Well, guess what? The fall semester will also be unlike what many of them have grown to expect.
As a faculty member, you’re probably spending the coming weeks or months thinking about how to teach in an environment of lower enrollments, less frequent face-to-face classroom interaction, and hybrid or fully online course formats. It’s doubtful that students are thinking about how their own behaviors as learners might need to change.
To get students to think about tools and habits that they might need for the next semester, have them do an online readiness self-assessment. Directing them to general advice about online learning either before or after a self-assessment might be helpful also.