The requirement for a statistics course in any degree program is common, whether it is undertaken through face-to-face classes or online ones. However, research suggests that online students experience higher levels of anxiety and stress when taking statistics courses than their face-to-face counterparts. Graduate students face additional challenges as they juggle work, studies, and family obligations simultaneously, making the subject even more difficult. Student procrastination is another factor that makes statistics harder.

Passive procrastination, which negatively affects learning, decreases the quality and quantity of work produced by students. Previous research has suggested that procrastination is a problem in face-to-face classes, and may also be an issue with online learning. The factors associated with studying are academic self-regulation, intrinsic motivation, and anxiety. Intrinsic motivation and academic self-regulation have an inverse relationship with procrastination. As students' motivation and self-regulation increase, their procrastination is likely to decrease. However, there is a direct proportion between anxiety and procrastination, a specific type being statistics anxiety related to the subject content.

The study considered online graduate students enrolled in the statistics and research course as participants, distributing several questionnaires to measure the factors mentioned above. The procrastination assessment questionnaire results were considered the dependent variable while the other measures were independent variables. Multiple linear regression showed that the independent variables have a 29.1% effect on passive procrastination, and a significant and unique inverse relationship was observed. There was a strong correlation of 0.41 with 95% confidence interval between the general strategies for learning and the procrastination assessment.

The study's results supported the hypothesis presented in the introduction, which showed that increasing self-regulation and intrinsic motivation would decrease passive procrastination in students. Unfortunately, the relationship between anxiety and passive procrastination remains directly proportional.

The study's findings proposed several solutions for the factors discussed above. Curriculum development that employs statistics-specific learning strategies may assist in improving academic self-regulation, and increasing the intrinsic motivation of students can be achieved through autonomy, competence, and relatedness. To decrease statistics anxiety, the study suggests adding humor, journal writing, and qualitative and quantitative methodology in the course’s curriculum.

The data presentation in the research was through tables, using multiple linear regression, exploratory data analysis, and statistical variables such as mean, standard deviations, and correlations. The researcher's results, supporting the hypothesis, were not presented explicitly for readers. A graphical presentation or multicollinearity illustration may have helped to improve data representation.

Overall, this study brings awareness to the problem of passive procrastination and highlights its relevance regardless of the mode of course delivery. The results suggest that further research is necessary to identify more effective interventions to minimize procrastination and anxiety among students.

Putting things off isn't just something that happens when we're studying; it's also a common issue in the workplace. As a pharmacist working in the private sector, it's crucial for me to avoid procrastination in order to meet deadlines and stay on top of my work. Ultimately, everyone is susceptible to procrastination, but the key is to find ways to overcome it. We need to identify the factors that contribute to our delaying tactics, and make a conscious effort to establish new habits that help us to be more productive and efficient.