In this paper we present the results of a comparison on students’ perception of group workshops that traditionally have been conducted on campus, but due to the covid-19 pandemic had to be conducted online. The workshops studied in this paper are learning activities where students in groups of 4-5 collaborate to solve programming problems without the help of computers. The course context is an introductory programming course at the information systems department in a Swedish university. Under “normal” campus-based circumstances, course evaluations have shown these workshops to be the most appreciated and engaging elements in a flipped pedagogy, active learning-based course. The aim of the study is to investigate if student perception of the workshops and their outcome differs when the activity no longer is conducted on campus and face-to-face. A survey targeting different aspects of student perception of the workshops was conducted before and after the change from campus to online. The analysis shows that there is a statistically significant difference in regards to the student’s ability to achieve the course goals and the outcome of the workshops. However, there does not appear to be any difference in the student’s perception to get help and feedback from the teachers. Overall, the results show that the students are less pleased with the workshops and with their performance in the online workshops compared to when they are campus-based.