Students ‘overwhelmed’ by onslaught of course content

Oh, it is definitely a real thing. And it is a thing of both their and our own making. Because academics and universities as a whole are now practically petrified at the idea of telling the fee paying customers "No" to anything, because we now have students making more claims than ever that they need and must have learning resource support of a million different kinds and formats, and because we genuinely want to support them on their journey we have begun to cater for that by putting up every version of every format of the learning material we can conceive of. We have begun putting up links to papers and websites and videos related to everything that we taught them to answer their call for guidance and examples to aid their understanding of what we have just taught them. And all in the name of helping them to read around what they've been taught without them having to actually go and look at what might best help them read around what they've been taught because they are now "customers" and should not have to do these things themselves. But in doing this in an effort to meet their requirements and requests and to be as supportive as possible, we have now created an almost bottomless folder of information both directly related and tangentially related to what was actually taught. And in a world where grades are (in a general sense) sought after more than the learning experience itself, the impression given to students and their own interpretation of this support is that if they don't use at all then they can't possibly get a good grade. This then inevitably makes them feel that they have to read it all and watch it all and download it all to keep their heads above water, which ironically any speeds up their scholastic submergence beneath the waves of content. And if we tell them directly that it is only support material and it is not compulsory, the fear that those who do use it will do better is more than enough to hasten along the rest to download it as well. You add in the communications coming at them from all directions, from support services to academic staff to institutional levels, and we're not actually creating a culture of support to reduce their stress and concerns, but one of as you say "content fatigue" where we are actually stripping away or otherwise not nurturing their ability to judge necessity for themselves or to look for the writing information for them as individuals to help their understanding or to support their journey through the university experience. Just because someone is responsible for you and wants to keep you happy, it doesn't mean that you should get what you want or that getting what you want is good for you. My kids might want pudding before dinner, but it doesn't mean that they're going to get it because I'm better placed to make that judgment than them, and it certainly doesn't mean that it's good for them even if I were to cave to keep them happy.