The mental health of students has become an important concern since the COVID-19 pandemic. However, the research on the influence of mental impact on students' achievement in online learning is still very limited, especially in relation to the motivation of students. This study which was conducted from July to August 2021, examines the relationship between e-learning challenges and limited interaction during online lectures on student motivation and satisfaction. Respondents came from 3 Universities in Banten Province, Indonesia, totaling 425 students consisting of 280 males (65.9%) and 145 females (34.1%). Respondents who reported their perceptions during online learning varied in grade, range from grade 1 to 4. Descriptive analysis shows that satisfaction level of respondents taking online lectures is 3.36 which is categorized fairly satisfied. From Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) analysis it is indicated that there is an effect of challenge e-learning on students' learning motivation, but on the contrary there is no interaction effect on students' learning motivation. An interesting finding was that there was no direct effect of e-learning challenge, interaction or motivation on student satisfaction. However, research shows that there is an effect of e-learning challenge and interaction on student satisfaction through intermediate variable motivation. Thus, it is important to consider the factors affecting student motivation, namely internet connection, learning environment, and development of interactive electronic content as the leverage for the improvement of the effectiveness of online learning