Becoming a CS1 Student in the Time of COVID

As students transition into higher education, their experience can be quite new and foreign to them - at times acting as a barrier into higher education. This experience, while an individual one, consists of many concerns that are shared amongst these transitioning students. Partly as a result of these concerns, retention rates of first year Computer Science students suffer. These topics were discussed and analysed at length in various studies, panels and working groups to create an initial body of understanding, influenced by a number of institutions across the world. However, the recent and unprecedented COVID-19 pandemic has caused further disruption: it is likely that students transitioning into higher education during the pandemic were faced with unparalleled concerns, anxieties and stresses.