TABLE 2.

Percent of students who reported that their depression affects a particular cognitive domain in the context of online science courses and example quotes.

Cognitive domains	% (n) (N = 24)	Example quote 1	Example quote 2
Effort	100.0 (24)	Deja: “If I’m in a depressive state, I’m just trying to get [course work] turned in, whether it’s going to be adequate or not. If you’re in a depressive state, it usually diminishes the amount of effort that you try to put in.”	Stephanie: “If I’m having an episode of depression, I’ll put less effort in and it makes the depression worse, because once again, I’m not doing my best work and things just go down the hole.”
Focus	95.8 (23)	Hailey: “[Depression] makes it hard to get started [on online homework]. Sometimes I have to be very deliberate about setting aside time to focus. If I know I have enough or too much time ahead of me and I just don’t feel motivated to do it, then I have a much harder time focusing [online].”	Charlie: “[Depression] can definitely be a drain on focus because if I’m having a particularly bad episode, it’s hard to do anything at all.”
Time management	95.8 (23)	Lindsay: “Sometimes those [depressive] episodes can last for two or three weeks and with the accelerated [online] platform, that can be over half of the course [that] I am depressed. And so, it makes it easy to push stuff off till the last minute because you’re just falling behind, then you’re just stuck. You fell behind [a] bunch of weeks in a row and now my grade got hit.”	Maddison: “When [the online class] is fast-paced I do need to read and reread, the shortened semesters do impact me negatively just because I’ve spent so much more time on this one assignment that I could have completed two instead of the one.”
Communicate thoughts	95.8 (23)	Heather: “When I’m depressed, I don’t want to speak at all. Sometimes I feel like I almost can’t talk, I go into my little bubble. I really just want to be isolated and quiet in those moments. That can be hard, especially if [instructors] want you to sit there and actually chat on video with peers or something. I feel like that’s difficult.”	Deja: “If I’m in a depressive state, I try not to contribute to the course, because when you’re in a depressive state, you feel inadequate. You feel that your opinion is not strong enough to contribute to a college course, and that maybe you should just sit back and listen to other people and just let them put their thoughts in the forefront. You have a lot of self-doubt in your ability, you try to find the answer on your own because you don’t want other people to think that you’re ignorant or that you don’t know. So, you either find out the answer on your own or you just try to progress forward without knowing the answer.”
Goal setting	83.3 (20)	Emily: “When it comes to long-term [goals], that’s where my brain sometimes just goes, ‘Well, what’s the point? What are you doing this for? Do you really think you’re going to be able to finish this degree? When are you going to do this for next semester?’ It’s the short-term goals that are crazier and more haphazard but it’s almost the long-term goals that are the deeper, more hurtful moments.”	Sofia: “When taking accelerated online courses, I know I’m going to have a breakdown. (...) I try and compartmentalize as much as I can and give myself like little itty-bitty goals, but it’s going to overflow at the end of it. So, I get in a fight or flight mode, and the whole time I’m just setting little mini goals for myself throughout the entire class, because if I don’t, then I will definitely fail.”
Problem solving	83.3 (20)	Allison: “I’m just not thinking very clearly if I’m depressed, I’m not using the full amount of my knowledge because I’m so stressed out. I’m not giving the best answer that I could because something’s holding me back in my head.”	Hannah: “Oh, God. It’s horrible. If I’m depressed, I can’t problem solve at all. My mind is so off in La La Land with myself, that it’s very hard for me to be able to problem solve.”
Memory	70.8 (17)	Lindsay: “I will have to reread things over and over. (…) [It’s] super frustrating because I can’t remember things I’m doing at that moment, and I have to read out loud to myself and take all of these extra steps just to remember something very basic.”	John: “You need a certain amount of time and practice to really commit things to memory. You don’t always have the time, energy and motivation to practice as much as you should. A lot of it is ‘okay just get it done by the deadline, just get it done.’ And when you do that, every week for seven and a half weeks, you don’t commit anything to memory you’re just treading water. You’re not swimming to shore.”
Social interactions	70.8 (17)	Heather: “I will cancel a lot of things. I just felt like I didn’t have the energy to be presentable enough to, like, talk to people on Zoom and I didn’t have the energy to fake it and, like, joke and chat, and I don’t like to be that person who is kind of a downer when I talk to people. If I’m depressed, I try to hide it from people.”	Lindsay: “It’s hard to engage with people when you feel [depressed]. When [in person], you don’t really have a choice, so it’s easy to pull out of it, because I know I need to be a participating member of society. But when no one’s there to see me do it, then I just don’t do it.”