Toast Can Never Be Bread Again: Communicating with Pre-Health Students in a Post-COVID World

By: Johnica Winter, Ph.D. and Caleb Marsh, Ed.D.

Despite how you may feel about them, the virtual tools that we began using out of necessity during the pandemic are here to stay. Students have come to rely on the cheaper cost, convenience, and flexibility of these tools. As advisors, we can meet students where they are by embracing these kinds of tools rather than trying to go back to the way things were pre-pandemic. It’s like when you have a piece of bread that gets toasted. Once the deed is done, there’s no going back, but that doesn’t mean that the toast isn’t a great place to start with making something wonderful for you to enjoy. It just means that you have to adapt how you want to move forward given this new context. In the spirit of embracing the toast, here are five ways that we think communicating with students has changed and why they aren’t likely to go back to their pre-pandemic state.

1. Virtual communication has become normalized and, in many instances, is the new standard. With adoption of remote learning options, students have become accustomed to communicating through virtual platforms such as Zoom, Microsoft Teams, and Google Meet. As a result, communicating with college students has become more digital and less face-to-face. While advisors might prefer to meet with students in their offices, many students (especially students who commute) much prefer the virtual space for advising and other similar appointments.
2. Students have begun to rely more on asynchronous communication. With the asynchronous nature of online learning, students may be checking their emails and messages less frequently and may not be available for real-time communication. As a result, college instructors and administrators may need to adjust their communication strategies to ensure that students are receiving the information they need. Asking students about their preferred methods of communication and discussing your preferred methods as an advisor is a great way to make sure that everyone is getting the information that they need. For example, you can add your preferred communication methods to your email signature block, add it as a note in appointment software, and make it part of your routine during your first meeting with a student to discuss how you will communicate with them. You could also add a question about preferred methods of communication to advisee intake forms or if you are teaching a class.
3. Increased emphasis on clarity and brevity is more important than ever before. With the increase in digital communication, there is a greater emphasis on clarity and brevity in messages. To ensure that students are receiving the information they need, college instructors and administrators may need to be more concise and straightforward in their communication. To be clear, we understand that class material and larger concepts require in-depth reading and thinking.  However, when it comes to communicating quick ideas or concepts, think bullet points, not longer paragraphs of text. Students have long been accused of not reading information given to them, but when it comes to communication, keeping things succinct and to-the-point is important. 
4. Advisors should strive for greater empathy and understanding. The pandemic has had a significant impact on students’ lives, and many may be dealing with a range of personal and academic challenges. College instructors and administrators may need to show greater empathy and understanding when communicating with students and may need to be more flexible and accommodating in their approach. It is worth remembering that students who entered college just before or just after the pandemic began do not have a typical frame of reference for what it means to be a college student. All these students have ever known is “toast” having never experienced the “bread” before we all got a little crispy from a very unusual time in our history. So, these students may need more time and direction to understand the expectations and navigate the nuances of college life. As a way of surviving academically, they have learned ways to cope with frustration and burnout, making them more attuned to their own needs and potentially less attuned to the bureaucratic processes or expectations of college-level work. Rather than expecting these students to know and understand things they haven’t had the ability to experience, empathy and understanding will go a long way towards helping them to grow professionally. 
5. More emphasis on building and using online resources. With the shift to remote learning, there has been a greater reliance on online resources, such as course websites and online learning platforms. Developing online repositories for digital resources and developing digital communication outlets, such as digital newsletters, YouTube channels, podcasts, etc. can be excellent ways to engage students when it is challenging to get them to physically come to your office. Leveraging a course management system like Canvas or Blackboard is another great way to provide students with curated online resources that can be specialized for a specific course or student population. Many textbook companies are also developing more online/virtual tools that can integrate with course management systems to provide additional interactive resources for students. College instructors and administrators may need to communicate more effectively about these resources to ensure that students are aware of them and know how to use them.