Abstract:

MacEwan University is a small regional undergraduate university with a diverse student body (e.g., age, ethnicity, family income, social status, work experience). Some students have minimal resources. During the pandemic, the Introduction to Computing I (C101) laboratories were deeply challenged when courses switched online. C101 teaches basic Python programming and targets students with little to no computing knowledge. Students from all faculties and departments take C101 to fulfill their degree requirements. Thus, the C101 students range from some who never used computers before to some who have advanced programming experience. The university has laboratory (lab) classrooms with desktop computers configured with all necessary software for students to work on their lab exercises. The switch to online learning made the desktop computers on campus unavailable. Therefore, we implemented a project to provide remote computing resources for the C101 students. Our project provided two types of remote computing resources: software-as-a-service resource and virtual machine resource. Through the project, we tried to answer these research questions: What will the students use for their lab exercises in online learning? Do we need to provide remote computing resources for the remote CS labs? Do we still need desktop computers after the pandemic? In two consecutive terms, when C101 was offered online only, our project gathered and analyzed data through student surveys and discussions with the instructors to answer our research questions.

We have the following findings:
1) Fully equipped lab computers are not needed anymore. 85% of the C101 students used their own devices to complete their lab exercises. The rest of the students managed to complete their lab exercises with the remote resources our project provided. The majority of the students preferred their own devices due to familiarity and convenience, no Internet requirement, and fast response time. Students who did not have the proper devices or did not have the skills to configure their devices used the preconfigured remote resources.
2) Experienced students prefer their own devices. Data shows that students with previous computing experience prefer using their own devices to prioritize convenience and flexibility.
3) Remote technologies improved equality, diversity, and inclusion (EDI), for the remote resources provide a level playing ground for students in disadvantaged positions.
4) To ensure all students have equal access to education, fast available Internet should be accessible.
5) The pandemic presented a pedagogical opportunity to teach students about preparing a backup plan.
6) Remote technology improvements are needed to accelerate their adoption.
7) Students seem to prefer virtual machine resource over software-as-a-service resource.
8) The budget for a remote technologies project is low. It is affordable for all institutions to start a pilot project.

In conclusion, traditional lab computers are unnecessary after the pandemic since most students prefer to use their own computing devices. However, remote computing resources foster equality in the introductory courses. Therefore, we envision most students will continue using their own devices after the pandemic, but institutions should provide a few remote "devices" for those in need. In the future, we will continue studying how to integrate different remote technologies to create a holistic teaching and learning environment.

Keywords:

Software Engineering Education, Remote Computing, Software-as-a-Service (SaaS), Virtual Machine (VM), Equality Diversity and Inclusion (EDI).