Abstract:

The health crisis caused by the COVID-19 coronavirus disease has had a significant impact on the quality of life of people, in general, and more considerably in young people. But not only they have been affected socially, but also in their academic life and therefore in their education. At the beginning of the pandemic, educational institutions were forced to respond quickly to ensure the continuity of the educational process. In that state of emergency, hardly lecturers had time to implement a rapid transition from the traditional face-to face teaching to a virtual one. In this study, we analyze the impact that this transition produced on students in the first year of the Grade's degree in Computer Science. Specifically in a subject with a high number of students, who saw their academic routine interrupted. The students were surveyed to track their satisfaction levels with the changes in the subject.

In this study, we detailed the guidelines followed for a rapid transition to virtual learning in times of health crisis and its impact on the students learning, their daily study, the assessment and the learning outcomes.

It was a great challenge, undertaking the task of managing large groups of students (a total of 260 students) who had not had the usual introduction to the subject, since they had just received the welcome to it, with hardly any time to know the lecturers.

The analysis focuses on studying the impact that the crisis had on learning outcomes. To do this, students were asked about the impact of the situation from their personal, social or resource level to the technical level of the subject, the ease or not for their study, the means at their disposal to provide approach to the subject, etc.

The results indicate the satisfaction of these students with the educational processes and the rapid transition. Although the answers do not give a clear inclination to know if, despite the circumstances, they acquired the content and/or competencies associated with the subject, taking into account that almost half of the students evaluated passed the subject.

Finally, they accepted face-to-face or blended teaching, but not prolonged distance learning, which allows suggesting a hybrid education model for the next generation of students.

Keywords:

Virtual learning, face-to-face teaching, learning outcomes, assessment, learning models.