The Impact of COVID-19 in Collaborative Programming. Understanding the Needs of Undergraduate Computer Science Students
Collaborative learning activities have become a common practice in current university studies due to the implantation of the EHEA. However, the COVID-19 pandemic has led to a radical and abrupt change in the teaching–learning model used in most universities, and in the way students’ group work is ca...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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MDPI AG
2021-07-01
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| Series: | Electronics |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://www.mdpi.com/2079-9292/10/14/1728 |
| _version_ | 1797527261984849920 |
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| author | Carmen Lacave Ana Isabel Molina |
| author_facet | Carmen Lacave Ana Isabel Molina |
| author_sort | Carmen Lacave |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Collaborative learning activities have become a common practice in current university studies due to the implantation of the EHEA. However, the COVID-19 pandemic has led to a radical and abrupt change in the teaching–learning model used in most universities, and in the way students’ group work is carried out. Given this new situation, our interest is focused on discovering how computer science students have approached group programming tasks. For this purpose, we have designed a cross-sectional pilot study to explore, from both social and technological points of view, how students carried out their group programming activities during the shutdown of universities, how they are doing them now, when social distance must be maintained, and what they have missed in both situations. The results of the study indicate that during the imposed confinement, the students adopted a programming model based on work division or distributed peer programming, and very few made use of synchronous distributed collaboration tools. After the lockdown, the students mostly opted for a model based on collaborative programming and there was an increased use of synchronous distributed collaboration tools. The specific communication, synchronization, and coordination functionalities they considered most useful or necessary were also analyzed. Among the desirable features included in a software for synchronous distributed programming, the students considered that having an audio-channel can be very useful and, possibly, the most agile method to communicate. The video signal is not considered as very necessary, being in many cases rather a source of distraction, while textual communication through a chat, to which they are very accustomed, is also well valued. In addition, version control and the possibility of recovering previous states of the practical projects were highly appreciated by the students, and they considered it necessary to record the individual contributions of each member of the team to the result. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-10T09:41:31Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-d0375647c8fa4b40a095d0d51528cde1 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2079-9292 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-10T09:41:31Z |
| publishDate | 2021-07-01 |
| publisher | MDPI AG |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Electronics |
| spelling | doaj.art-d0375647c8fa4b40a095d0d51528cde12023-11-22T03:39:12ZengMDPI AGElectronics2079-92922021-07-011014172810.3390/electronics10141728The Impact of COVID-19 in Collaborative Programming. Understanding the Needs of Undergraduate Computer Science StudentsCarmen Lacave0Ana Isabel Molina1CHICO Research Group, Universidad de Castilla-La Mancha, 13071 Ciudad Real, SpainCHICO Research Group, Universidad de Castilla-La Mancha, 13071 Ciudad Real, SpainCollaborative learning activities have become a common practice in current university studies due to the implantation of the EHEA. However, the COVID-19 pandemic has led to a radical and abrupt change in the teaching–learning model used in most universities, and in the way students’ group work is carried out. Given this new situation, our interest is focused on discovering how computer science students have approached group programming tasks. For this purpose, we have designed a cross-sectional pilot study to explore, from both social and technological points of view, how students carried out their group programming activities during the shutdown of universities, how they are doing them now, when social distance must be maintained, and what they have missed in both situations. The results of the study indicate that during the imposed confinement, the students adopted a programming model based on work division or distributed peer programming, and very few made use of synchronous distributed collaboration tools. After the lockdown, the students mostly opted for a model based on collaborative programming and there was an increased use of synchronous distributed collaboration tools. The specific communication, synchronization, and coordination functionalities they considered most useful or necessary were also analyzed. Among the desirable features included in a software for synchronous distributed programming, the students considered that having an audio-channel can be very useful and, possibly, the most agile method to communicate. The video signal is not considered as very necessary, being in many cases rather a source of distraction, while textual communication through a chat, to which they are very accustomed, is also well valued. In addition, version control and the possibility of recovering previous states of the practical projects were highly appreciated by the students, and they considered it necessary to record the individual contributions of each member of the team to the result.https://www.mdpi.com/2079-9292/10/14/1728group programmingdistributed collaborative programmingstudents’ needsCOVID-19 |
| spellingShingle | Carmen Lacave Ana Isabel Molina The Impact of COVID-19 in Collaborative Programming. Understanding the Needs of Undergraduate Computer Science Students Electronics group programming distributed collaborative programming students’ needs COVID-19 |
| title | The Impact of COVID-19 in Collaborative Programming. Understanding the Needs of Undergraduate Computer Science Students |
| title_full | The Impact of COVID-19 in Collaborative Programming. Understanding the Needs of Undergraduate Computer Science Students |
| title_fullStr | The Impact of COVID-19 in Collaborative Programming. Understanding the Needs of Undergraduate Computer Science Students |
| title_full_unstemmed | The Impact of COVID-19 in Collaborative Programming. Understanding the Needs of Undergraduate Computer Science Students |
| title_short | The Impact of COVID-19 in Collaborative Programming. Understanding the Needs of Undergraduate Computer Science Students |
| title_sort | impact of covid 19 in collaborative programming understanding the needs of undergraduate computer science students |
| topic | group programming distributed collaborative programming students’ needs COVID-19 |
| url | https://www.mdpi.com/2079-9292/10/14/1728 |
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