TABLE 3.

Aspects of online college science courses that negatively affect undergraduate depression

Aspects of online courses	Description	Students who reported experiencing the factor as part of their online courses % (n/N)	Students who reported experiencing the factor and identified that it negatively affected their depression % (n/N)a
Fast pace of online courses	Online courses at this institution are generally 3 credits over 7.5 weeks, which means the content is covered approximately twice as fast as it is during in-person courses.	100.0 (24/24)	100.0 (24/24)
Not needing to show up to class in person	All course work is taken online asynchronously and students do not need to show up to a physical classroom.	100.0 (24/24)	66.7 (16/24)
Difficulty developing a relationship with other students	Student struggles to develop a relationship with other students in the online environment, often because of a lack of face-to-face interactions.	87.5 (21/24)	95.2 (20/21)
Difficulty communicating or developing a relationship with the instructor	Student struggles to communicate or develop a relationship with the instructor in the online environment, often because of a lack of informal conversations.	83.3 (20/24)	95.0 (19/20)
Difficulty having questions answered	Student struggles to have questions answered in an online environment.	75.0 (18/24)	100.0 (18/18)
Lack of structure and accountability of online coursesb	Many online courses have guidelines and not due dates, which puts students in charge of determining the schedule outlining when each assignment should be accomplished.	45.8 (11/24)	100.0 (11/11)

^aEach denominator indicates the number of students who reported that they experienced each aspect of an online course.

^bAll factors were predetermined, with the exception of the lack of structure and accountability of online courses, which emerged from students’ responses to a question asking if there were any additional aspects of online college science courses that exacerbated their depression.