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Exemplifying Computational Thinking Scenarios in the Age of COVID-19: Examining the Pandemic’s Effects in a Project-Based MOOC
  • Juan D. Pinto,
  • Chris Quintana,
  • Rebecca M. Quintana
Juan D. Pinto
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, University of Michigan

Corresponding Author:jdpinto2@illinois.edu

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Chris Quintana
University of Michigan
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Rebecca M. Quintana
University of Michigan
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Abstract

The rapid, global spread of COVID-19 has led to an unprecedented rise in enrollments in online learning experiences among learners of all ages. In this paper, we explore the impact of the global pandemic on a massive open online course, Problem Solving Using Computational Thinking, with a particular focus on the topics learners chose for their final projects.  The Computational Thinking MOOC was designed using a project-based learning approach and aims to provide learners with an introduction to the “big ideas” of computational thinking using a range of case studies that encompass topics such as airport surveillance, epidemiology, and human trafficking. Beyond observing a sharp increase in enrollment and engagement at the time the pandemic began, we discuss ways in which the course’s project-based pedagogy allowed learners to bring their present experiences and concerns together with the course’s subject matter in order to meet the learning objectives for the course. Many learners chose to address aspects of the pandemic in the course’s final project and applied ideas about computational thinking to peer-graded assignments that conveyed an individualized sense of importance and urgency. We assert that this approach, along with the inclusion of a timely epidemiology case study, enabled learners to more deeply internalize the role that computational thinking can play in their own lives and in society as a whole.
15 Aug 2020Submitted to Computing in Science and Engineering
16 Aug 2020Editor invited a reviewer
16 Aug 2020Editor invited a reviewer
26 Aug 2020Published in Computing in Science and Engineering
26 Aug 2020Review Report #2 received
01 Nov 2020Published in Computing in Science & Engineering volume 22 issue 6 on pages 97-102. 10.1109/MCSE.2020.3024012
10.22541/au.159836455.53710629/v2
Dirk Colbry posted a review
The article "Exemplifying Computational Thinking Scenarios in the Age of COVID-19: Examining the Pandemic’s Effects in a Project-Based MOOC" describes a project-based MOOC designed to teach a wide variety of STEM students "computational thinking."  This course was being conducted during the initial outbreak of COVID-19 and thus has some really interesting data relating to the uptake in student enrollment as well as a focus on students choosing projects based on COVID-19.  In addition to the COVID-19 data, I found two aspects of the article to be