Hi Jeremy, The old addage "They don't care how much you know, until they know how much you care," is true with many students in the postsecondary online classroom today. Sometimes the expectations statement is most useful for reference and reminders than the initial starting point. It is also a good idea for faculty to remind, with emails and pop-ups, the importance of reading the announcements and the benefit it provides the student in reduction of frustration, etc. Also, very good point about the teacher leading by example. Modeling the behavior that is expected is the best way to get buy-in from the students.