Exploring the academic stress of Chinese university students majoring in Chemistry during the online studying period of the Covid-19
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.11080167Keywords:
Academic stress, Chinese university students, Chemistry, Online, The Covid-19Abstract
Since the outbreak of covid-19, the location of students' classes has changed from one where students could meet face-to-face with teachers at school to one where students can only study online at home, bringing a different student experience and a different kind of learning pressure. It is worth noting that for some theoretical classes, teachers can teach and students can listen through the internet, but for some practical classes, it is difficult for teachers to teach online and students do not learn the relevant knowledge. As a result, this brings about academic pressure on students. This study aims to examine the impact of online learning on Chinese university students majoring in chemistry during the 2020 epidemic preparedness period. A mixed-methods approach was used to gain insight into the perceptions and resolution strategies of online learning stress among undergraduate chemistry students at a Chinese university during the epidemic. In the quantitative phase, this study used questionnaires to reveal the impact of gender and grade level on students' academic stress; in the qualitative phase, semi-structured interviews were used to reveal how students coped with the stress associated with online learning. The results showed that Chinese male university students majoring in chemistry had significantly higher academic stress than Chinese female university students majoring in chemistry. Statistically significant differences in perceived levels of academic stress were found between fourth-year and first-year, second-year and third-year undergraduate students. Senior year students exhibited significantly higher levels of academic stress than students in other years. It was also found that studying online during the epidemic did not only cause negative academic stress among Chinese university students majoring in chemistry, but also had the aspect of reducing academic stress. The results of this study will help to better understand the needs of chemistry undergraduates in online learning, which will help teachers and schools to develop better teaching and learning activities and thus build a better university education.
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