4.1 The current situation of university students' online class anxiety and its influencing factors
The epidemic factor was the primary reason for college students' anxiety in online classes. Epidemic factors are the primary causes of college students' anxiety in online courses. It has been shown that emotional factors during home isolation are more clearly associated with exercise, socialization, and another life state [3]. During the epidemic, various epidemic control measures restricted travel, and home-based online courses in universities reduced the quality of physical and social activities for college students. At the same time, these measures also altered the usual routine and tended to trigger anxiety among college students.
The second most influential factor was the mode of online classes. The online course is not limited by time and space, so many colleges and universities have accepted it as one of the teaching methods during the epidemic. However, everything has two sides. The characteristics of unlimited time of online courses may lead to long hours of online courses, which may cause vision loss. The characteristics of space constraints have led to unsupervised homework and assessment, making online teaching lack fairness in the comprehensive evaluation mechanism[11]. Therefore, the vulnerability of online course mode will affect the enthusiasm of college students for the online course and then cause anxiety in college students about online course teaching.
External environmental, psychological, and pedagogical factors are important reasons for college students' anxiety about online courses. The online course study is in a highly dispersed environment, which is easily disturbed by the external environment. The lure of electronic devices and unstable equipment can reduce attention to online learning, resulting in poor learning outcomes[12]. In addition, some college students often have a sense of competitive crisis in the online classroom, leading to emotional exhaustion. More importantly, students often need to be more patient-facing with various cumbersome teaching platforms.[13]. These three factors can generate negative emotions, and the long-term accumulation of negative emotions can cause college students' online course anxiety.
The influence of self-adjustment factors on online course anxiety of college students is minimal but still can not be ignored. One of the sources of students' online class anxiety is the poor learning effect of online classes, and the difference in learning effect can depend on the level of college students learning autonomy and adaptability[1]. Therefore, in the online class teaching mode that lacks teacher-student interaction, their poor adjustment can lead to poor online class learning and indirectly cause online class anxiety among college students.
4.2 Different groups of college students' online course anxiety
Male college students are more likely to have anxiety in their online courses. This may be because male college students have lower learning adaptability and self-management skills than female college students[14]. At the same time, male college students deal with anxiety more by self-digestion than female college students, who are more willing to seek help from others[15].
First-year students are more likely to have anxiety in online courses because first-year students have a low willingness to learn online courses and low satisfaction with online course teaching[16]. In addition, first-year students are full of unknown fears about college life. As graduates are about to enter society, they face pressure from various aspects such as graduation defense, employment and entrepreneurship, postgraduate entrance examination, and emotion, so they are more prone to anxiety[18–19].
Non-medical students are more likely to experience anxiety in online courses because non-medical students have not systematically studied medical knowledge. Non-medical students need to be more knowledgeable about the transmission, prevention, and control measures of COVID-19. Also, They are worsening than medical students at identifying COVID-19 information as true or false, responding to public health emergencies, and using online learning platforms[20–21]. Moreover, they are less satisfied with online courses than medical students[22].
4.3 Suggestions
On the epidemic factors, We should guide college students to carry out healthy activities, advocate active participation in indoor sports, and develop regular eating and sleeping habits, which prevent loss of attention and interest among college students[23].
In terms of online course mode factors, schools and teachers can increase the frequency of break intervals between online lessons to relieve students' eye strain[23]. Relevant departments should strengthen the anti-cheating mechanism of online examinations, such as requiring students to take examinations in a single designated room, setting an anti-cut screen mode on the examination platform, and proctoring examinations with multiple hidden cameras.
In terms of external environmental factors, college students need to strengthen self-management and resist the temptation of electronic devices. For example, they should turn off the prompt information function of other entertainment software when studying online courses or in places with an intense learning atmosphere. Related departments should develop video players and update underlying technologies to optimize the clarity of live video and peak traffic load, thus solving problems such as video delays, flashbacks, and lagging[24].
In terms of psychological factors, college students need to strengthen psychological guidance, actively prevent internal emotional conflict, and maintain a good state of mind to face online courses. The better the mental health status of college students, the more peaceful they are, and the more positive behavioral measures they take. The better the college student's learning adaptability, the better the online class anxiety can be reduced.[25].
In terms of teaching factors, the department needs to improve the performance of the teaching platform and advocate resource sharing so that college students can use a small number of teaching platforms to efficiently conduct online classes[13]. Teachers need to be familiar with the teaching platforms' operation and change how they used to prepare lessons for offline teaching.
Regarding self-adjustment factors, teachers can draw people to answer questions at any time during the class and select the designated time for answering questions online. Meanwhile, we can discuss topics through the learning platform and share learning experiences from time to time to enhance the interaction between teachers and students[1]. To mobilize the initiative and autonomy of college students learning online courses, students need to clarify their goals and change their learning cognition and attitude[24].
4.4 Limitations
This study focuses on the current situation and influencing factors of college students' anxiety about online courses at home under the background of the epidemic. It has pronounced directivity, but there are still things that could be improved. First of all, non-probability sampling is adopted in this study. The respondents were all from a university in Dongguan, and the sample needed to be more representative. Second, due to the short survey period, the sample size was small, and the research results were limited. In addition, other confounding factors, such as place of residence, household income, and living habits, were not collected.