How is classroom teaching different from before the pandemic?

[the_geneticist]

We have been "back to normal" for a while now.

When I was no longer forced to offer multiple delivery formats, I lost a lot of students. Some of them were already doing poorly, so I was probably going to lose them under any circumstances.

I found out that one of the students was actually working at their job, while "attending" class remotely, and another was involved in a high-stakes video game tournament.

So my classes got a lot smaller, after the university switched to post-pandemic "back to normal." And, that's fine with me. The only students left are the ones that matter. The rest of them--the filler--they can all play their video games or work their jobs, or whatever they were doing when the pandemic provided cover for their parallel activities while "attending" class.

I was sympathetic to the students who suddenly had to work at the start of the pandemic.  Or were suddenly responsible for watching siblings/lost their childcare provider/etc.  Many of our students were the sole income for their household.  But that was an emergency situation. 

I have zero sympathy for students who think that online = optional participation, especially if they are using their time for non-essential, non-academic activities like video games.

[RatGuy]

As I'm finishing up the semester, I'm finding that students' expectations are different than before, even if I don't see much of a difference in classes themselves. For example, I've been using a reading list similar to the list I've used for years, while cycling through some of the major texts. Well this semester the "workload" and "the amount of reading" etc are all seen as too great. My evals are united in that a) I assign too much reading b) there's too much to do at the end of the term and c) it's too tough.

As for b), well, that's their fault for procrastinating. But the other stuff hasn't changed much over the years, and my medians and average grades have risen over the last 5 years. So maybe this is an effect of the Pandemic schoolyears?

[Anon1787]

As I'm finishing up the semester, I'm finding that students' expectations are different than before, even if I don't see much of a difference in classes themselves. For example, I've been using a reading list similar to the list I've used for years, while cycling through some of the major texts. Well this semester the "workload" and "the amount of reading" etc are all seen as too great. My evals are united in that a) I assign too much reading b) there's too much to do at the end of the term and c) it's too tough.

As for b), well, that's their fault for procrastinating. But the other stuff hasn't changed much over the years, and my medians and average grades have risen over the last 5 years. So maybe this is an effect of the Pandemic schoolyears?

I'm not surprised that they complain about the course being too tough if you're back to doing in person exams and activities, but I'm surprised that they complain about there being too much to do at the end of the term when the shift to online resulted in more flexible deadlines that allowed more procrastination.

[mythbuster]

Ahh, but the end of the semester is the ultimate deadline. So all those things that the left till later in their other classes are now finally due. This leads to the perception of "too much work at the end of term".  It all can't just be delayed forever.