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

Abstract

This paper presents the findings from a research project exploring the impact of learner resilience as part of the shift to online delivery of learning, teaching and assessment amidst national social "lockdown" measures as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. This exploration of resilience was undertaken as part of the delivery of a first-year undergraduate computer science degree programme in a UK higher education institution over two academic years. Resilience was measured by the Nicholson McBride Resilience Questionnaire (NMRQ). The responses from the 2019-20 and 2020-21 student cohorts (N=214) illustrate that overall learner resilience as measured by NMRQ does not appear to have had a significant impact upon learner success as measured by the mean overall first-year performance. This is an outcome that differs from previously published work and may be a consequence of the unusual and ongoing circumstances arising from the pandemic. However, the factor "I try to control events rather than being a victim of my circumstances" appears to promote success and the factor "I trust my intuition" may have been slightly detrimental to overall success. As we start to consider the post-pandemic new (ab)normal, learners will continue to face significant personal challenges that will impact upon their engagement with their studies and their performance and progression; thus the insights offered from this UK university study can help to inform emerging academic and pastoral practice for undergraduate computer science education. CCS CONCEPTS• Social and professional topics → Computing education.

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

“…Again, early level students were more negatively impacted than their senior peers, reporting more issues with technology and even a slightly worse learning experience in 2021. This aligns with existing literature on the correlation between student level and performance in online learning [11,21,28,29], as well as with our previous study. We have also confirmed that students enrolled in courses delivered asynchronously find it more difficult to ask questions in class, as well as participating in laboratories.…”

“…Raju et al [20] found that CS students had a comparable or even worse attitude toward online learning than non-CS students. Crick et al [21] reported that first year CS students struggled more than their older peers with the online learning format, which aligns with the results of our previous study [6]. In particular, first year students seemed more inclined to rely on themselves when facing difficulties, instead of seeking help or trying to engage with peers or instructors, with negative effects.…”

“…Numerous voices from the educational community are calling to preserving the new options offered during distance learning and move toward more student-centered pedagogy [34][35][36][37][38][39]. Looking specifically at the CS landscape, Crick et al in [40] reported some students' interest toward post-pandemic online learning, although students in their study were also acutely aware of the risks, such as social isolation, and overall indicated preference toward including at least some face-to-face course activities. Tadlaoui and Chekou in [41] proposed a blended (hybrid) learning approach for teaching python, affirming that it is better suited for the modern educational environment.…”

Toward Competency-Based Professional Accreditation in Computing

“…Other peer assessment schemes may be employed to assess a combination of dispositions and skills in team working contexts [37,66,67]. Self assessment of aspects of positive psychology may also be used to address some learner dispositions [65,69,192,198]. As stated earlier, a single demonstration of a task is typically insufficient to demonstrate that learners repeatedly and over an extended period apply necessary skills with an appropriate disposition.…”

Co-Designing Classroom Practice to Improve Student Attention and Engagement in Computer Science Degree Programmes

“…With learners who purport to be increasingly digitally confident and capable now entering higher education, academics may need to reconsider their approaches to learning, teaching and assessment strategies. As student performance is dependent on attentional engagement, it is crucial to identify and mitigate potential distractions that might capture attention and undermine performance [3,6,7]. To improve attention, practitioners have considered aspects such as activity timings [5], or the role of the teacher [1],…”