The COVID-19 pandemic has birthed a wealth of information through many publicly accessible sources, such as news outlets and social media. However, gathering and understanding the content can be difficult due to inaccuracies or inconsistencies between the different sources. To alleviate this challenge in Australia, a team of 48 student volunteers developed an open-source COVID-19 information dashboard to provide accurate, reliable, and real-time COVID-19 information for Australians. The students developed this software while working under legislative restrictions that required social isolation. The goal of this study is to characterize the experiences of the students throughout the project. We conducted an online survey completed by 39 of the volunteering students contributing to the COVID-19 dashboard project. Our results indicate that playing a positive role in the COVID-19 crisis and learning new skills and technologies were the most cited motivating factors for the students to participate in the project. While working on the project, some students struggled to maintain a work-life balance due to working from home. However, the students generally did not express strong sentiment towards general project challenges. The students expressed more strongly that data collection was a significant challenge as it was difficult to collect reliable, accurate, and up-to-date data from various government sources. The students have been able to mitigate these challenges by establishing a systematic data collection process in the team, leveraging frequent and clear communication through text, and appreciating and encouraging each other's efforts. By participating in the project, the students boosted their technical (e.g., front-end development) and non-technical (e.g., task prioritization) skills. Our study discusses several implications for students, educators, and policymakers.

中文翻译：

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流行病软件开发：开发 COVID-19 信息仪表板的学生体验

COVID-19 大流行通过许多可公开访问的来源（例如新闻媒体和社交媒体）产生了大量信息。然而，由于不同来源之间的不准确或不一致，收集和理解内容可能很困难。为了缓解澳大利亚的这一挑战，一个由 48 名学生志愿者组成的团队开发了一个开源的 COVID-19 信息仪表板，为澳大利亚人提供准确、可靠和实时的 COVID-19 信息。学生们在需要社会隔离的立法限制下工作时开发了这个软件。本研究的目标是描述学生在整个项目中的经历。我们进行了一项由 39 名为 COVID-19 仪表板项目做出贡献的志愿学生完成的在线调查。我们的结果表明，在 COVID-19 危机中发挥积极作用以及学习新技能和技术是学生参与该项目的最常被引用的激励因素。在从事该项目时，一些学生因在家工作而难以保持工作与生活的平衡。然而，学生们普遍对一般项目挑战没有表现出强烈的情绪。学生们更强烈地表示，数据收集是一项重大挑战，因为很难从各种政府来源收集可靠、准确和最新的数据。学生们通过在团队中建立系统的数据收集流程、通过文本进行频繁和清晰的交流，以及欣赏和鼓励彼此的努力，已经能够缓解这些挑战。通过参与该项目，学生们提高了他们的技术（例如前端开发）和非技术（例如任务优先级）技能。我们的研究讨论了对学生、教育者和政策制定者的几个影响。