James,
I agree that lack of motivation is a real issue as is the overcommitment of some students. We all have some of those. With these students I think the real issue is their time management. They are used to having us feed the information to them in class. If they get used to the fact that this isn't going to happen they will adjust. That being said, I do believe that if time management is an issue, we need to steer those students to where they can get help with that issue - such as the university counseling center, etc.
Dr. Moody Crew
