An Exploration of Students’ Perceptions of Academic Stress in Assignment Completion

PEDAGOGIA
Vol 23, No 3 (2025)

This study examined students’ perceptions of bibliographic annotation assignments and their relationship with academic stress and coping strategies. The study focused on students in the Library and Information Science Program at Universitas Pendidikan Indonesia, where bibliographic annotation constituted one of the core academic tasks. It aimed to explore how students understood the purpose of the assignment and how the task affected their psychological condition. A descriptive quantitative approach was employed, using a survey administered through an online questionnaire to 46 respondents. The data were analyzed using descriptive statistics with the support of spreadsheet and statistical software. The findings showed that most students perceived bibliographic annotation assignments positively, particularly in supporting their understanding of course materials and improving their academic skills. However, several students also reported feeling burdened by the volume of assignments. The level of academic stress was generally moderate, with fatigue and anxiety emerging as the most common but manageable responses. In dealing with these demands, students predominantly used adaptive coping strategies, especially problem-focused coping and distraction coping. These findings indicated that positive perceptions of academic tasks did not entirely eliminate stress, but they could help students manage academic pressure more effectively. This study contributed to a better understanding of students’ perceptions, stress levels, and coping strategies in relation to academic assignments and offered insights for designing learning activities that are more responsive to student well-being.