Students and Instructors Reflections on the Impact of COVID-19 on Computer Science Education after One Year of Remote Teaching

Abstract

In May 2020, 2 months after the COVID-19 pandemic caused institutions across the world to move all their courses online, we conducted a survey to evaluate the impact of this transition on a group of computer science students. That first survey highlighted mostly negative effects, with students struggling to perform many class-related activities. About a year later, after a full year of remote teaching, we wanted to see if and how the students' sentiment had changed. To assess students' perceptions of remote teaching, we conducted a new survey composed of 41 between multiple choice, Likert scale and open ended questions. Additionally, we have also interviewed instructors of computer science courses, to learn about their experience and how they adapted to the new teaching modality. 137 students and 10 instructors have shared their feedback regarding their positive and negative experiences in the new learning format. Our results show that the students' experience has improved significantly, to the point that many of them expressed interest in continuing learning online, at least partially. Conversely, the instructors have concerns that this may not produce the best learning outcomes for the students. Our study also shows that some populations may still be at a disadvantage in this learning format. The results and considerations included in this report may benefit the conversation on how to conduct computer science higher education in a post-pandemic world.