Computer Science Majors’ Experiences of Their Distance Education Caused by the COVID-19 Pandemic

The COVID-19 pandemic caused many universities to switch from on-campus education to distance education, in just a couple of days. In this study, we investigate how computer science (CS) majors experienced the emergency remote education during the first months of the pandemic. We sent out a survey to bachelor's and master's students, which yielded 794 responses. In the survey, we asked the students to compare the online education to their on-campus education on a number of aspects, such as motivation, experienced stress and the possibility to collaborate with other students. We also asked the students to compare the quality of learning activities, such as lectures and tutorials. The results show that students preferred the on-campus setting in all aspects, but on open-ended questions about advantages, the students stated the new education format made their schedule more flexible, increased accessibility of learning material, and reduced commuting time. We also identified some differences between the students' year of study, implying that different courses did not adapt to the new conditions equally well.

I. Introduction

When the COVID-19 pandemic broke out, many universities were forced to close down their campuses and move all education online in just a matter of days [1] –[4]. At the universities where a vast majority of the education has previously taken place on-campus, this caused a very rapid change. Distance education can, however, come with a new set of challenges, and the format of the learning activities and the assessments might have to be adapted. During spring 2020, there simply was not any time to plan, and the teachers had to resort to what has been called “emergency remote education” [5], as a necessity to cope with the crisis [1]. This study aims to investigate how our students that major in computer science (CS) experienced their emergency online education given during the spring semester 2020, compared to their traditional planned on-campus education. CS majors is a particularly interesting student group to look at, since it could be expected that these students are already used to using computers and technology within their education. The research questions addressed in this paper are: 1)

How did CS majors experience their emergency remote education that was given during the spring semester 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, compared to their traditional on-campus education?

2)

What, if any, differences are there, depending on the students’ year of study?

3)

Which are the main advantages and disadvantages of the emergency online education, according to the students?