Tools and Techniques Adapted for Teaching Software Engineering Topics Remotely during the COVID-19 Pandemic

Abstract

To stop the spread of the COVID-19 virus, educational institutions abruptly switched from in-person to online, remote mode of teaching without giving educators the necessary tools and training. In this paper, we focus on the Software Engineering Education & Training (SEET) courses at the university levels and address questions like: What tools and techniques did they adapt to handle the modality transition challenges? What lessons they learned and what would they do differently the next time? What are the students' perspective on these, etc.? We interviewed 16 SEET educators from different countries around the world; followed by surveys of more than 300 educator and student participants. Our empirical study found some common themes of challenges, as well as suggestions on tools and techniques to overcome them.