Educational Landscapes During and After COVID-19

Abstract

The coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic has forced an unprecedented global shift within higher education in the ways that we communicate with and educate students. This necessary paradigm shift has compelled educators to take a critical look at their teaching styles and use of technology. Computing education traditionally focuses on experiential, in-person activities. The pandemic has mandated that educators reconsider their use of student time and has catalysed overnight innovations in the educational setting.Even in the unlikely event that we return entirely to pre-COVID-19 norms, many new practices have emerged that offer valuable lessons to be carried forward into our post-COVID-19 teaching. This working group will explore what the post-COVID-19 academic landscape might look like, and how we can use lessons learned during this educational shift to improve our subsequent practice. The exploration will strive to identify practices within computing that appear to have been improved through exposure to online tools and technologies, and that should therefore continue to be used in the online space. In the broadest sense, our motivation is to explore what the post-COVID-19 educational landscape will look like for computing education. CCS CONCEPTS• Social and professional topics → Computing education.

Exploring Learner Resilience and Performance of First-Year Computer Science Undergraduate Students during the COVID-19 Pandemic

“…We have seen -and we will likely continue to see into 2022 and potentially beyond -further shifts and changes to the provision of computer science degree-level education in the UK, and what this means for not only students, but also for academic faculty and professional services staff. This is supported by widespread evidence, both in the UK [16,60] and internationally [17,50], of potentially permanent changes to pedagogy and practice (especially assessment); academic integrity; values; inclusion and diversity; and community, belonging and wellbeing [49,50]. For learner resilience, and ultimately performance and progression, there are a number of interesting future avenues of research to explore, acknowledging the ongoing and unevenly distributed impact of COVID-19 on our various student communities, staff and wider society [15,50,61].…”

“…In additional to the typical challenges to transition to university study, the 2019-20 and 2020-21 cohorts of learners in the UK, faced a further set of challenges, those presented by the rapid and ongoing move to online learning, teaching and assessment introduced in response to the measures introduced in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. This necessary paradigm shift has compelled educators to take a critical look at their teaching styles and use of technology; for the discipline of computer science, which traditionally focuses on experiential, in-person activities, the pandemic has mandated that educators reconsider their use of student time and has catalysed overnight innovations in the educational setting [17,49]. Even in the unlikely event that we return entirely to pre-pandemic norms, many new practices have been developed and emerged that offer valuable lessons to be carried forward into our post-COVID-19 teaching, from pedagogy and practice [16], through to community, belonging, inclusion and diversity [50].…”

Inclusive Education in Wales: Interpreting Discourses of Values and Practice Using Critical Policy Analysis

“…While there are significant political, social, cultural, and even legislative levers for driving this, it yet remains to be seen if these steps toward education reform will create a more inclusive education system in Wales. Furthermore, at the time of writing, the longer term impact of COVID-19 on education systems globally has yet to be understood (Crick, 2021; Marchant et al, 2021; Siegel et al, 2021; Watermeyer, Crick, et al, 2021); this is of particular relevance for Wales due to the impact on preparation for the major system-level reforms over the coming years (Harris et al, 2020), including both the new curriculum (Crick & Golding, 2020; Crick & Priestley, 2019) and the changes to the ALN system (Knight & Crick, 2021). More broadly, this research provides a tractable framework and approach for developing further insight into the challenges of moving from policy to practice in the development of inclusive education systems in other regions and jurisdictions.…”

Cybersecurity in the Digital Classroom: Implications for Emerging Policy, Pedagogy and Practice

“…The educational environment has changed radically -and will continue to do so -since the start of the COVID-19 global pandemic and the subsequent lockdown measures in every country and jurisdiction [1,2,3,4,28]. Combined with the demands of an increasingly digital, data-driven and computational world, there is a growing impetus for the evolution of the digital classroom, and especially digital pedagogy and practice [2,5].…”