Improving Learning Quality in CS Education during the COVID19 Pandemic

Teaching introductory computer science (CS101) to first year engineering students during a pandemic provides a challenge that can be met with different measures. In this paper we give an analysis of how the course setup evolved during the pandemic, which changes we decided to make in terms of group size and offering additional learning opportunities. It is detailed and compared how an oral summative assessment and a newly introduced written midterm exam influence the final grades of the course and students' contentment. We conclude by discussing the exam results and comparing them over several years and describing what we see as a future proof setup for online and faceto-face teaching.