Emerging from the pandemic: instructor reflections and students' perceptions on an introductory programming course in blended learning

Teaching an introductory programming course to first-year students has long been a challenge for many college instructors. The COVID-19 pandemic, which caused unprecedented shifts in learning modality across the globe, has worsened the learning experience of novice programmers. Instructors have to find innovative ways to keep students engaged and learning. Blended or hybrid learning has become a new preferred way of learning during the COVID-19 pandemic. Blended learning is viewed as a combination of both in-person and online instructions. Such a learning environment offers instructors the flexibility to provide learners with an engaging face-to-face learning experience while promoting the well-being and safety of students. Starting Fall 2020, York College (and other CUNY colleges) has since offered several courses in hybrid mode. Two years have passed since the abrupt transition. There were several lessons learned from the experiences. In this paper, I discussed evidence-based pedagogical approaches that were used to teach students in an introductory computer programming class at York College, CUNY, where blended learning was used. Student perceptions of learning experience and obtaining coding skills in both online and in-person environments are also presented. The findings from the survey suggested that students benefited from face-to-face interactions and feedback, while those who preferred an online environment liked the flexibility that online components offer. Through careful design and implementation of pedagogical approaches used in the class, novice programmers could potentially benefit from both face-to-face and online components of blended learning.