Independent learning is important because it avoids overwhelming the limited teaching staff with too many questions. Each level has good visual and textual directions so that students rarely feel stuck and are able to mostly work independently. The courses operate like a game board where levels are a spot on the game board. The highly structured format allows the students to be more independent because instructors don’t have to always be thinking about pacing and what problems to assign next. Students can easily see where they are and what they have to do next. CodeCombat checked those boxes.ĬodeCombat has a very structured curriculum which lends itself well to online learning. My criteria for a new framework were that it had to be highly structured and it had to have easily available student metrics. I was looking for a curriculum that would work well online because my custom framework to teach programming only worked in-person. At NJCSSA, we had completed about 4 weeks in person, then had to switch to virtual classes in March. They were expected to find a good way to teach online in a very short time, sometimes only in a couple of weeks. The Coronavirus pandemic turned the world upside down, especially for teachers. Students play as a hero in a medieval world where they have to defeat enemies, collect gems, and protect their friends through higher levels of game difficulty. CodeCombat has gamified programming to be more than just terminal output, but keeps text-based programming instead of blocks like in Scratch. Those languages are chosen because they are relatively easy to pick up for beginners and they are widely used in industry. What is CodeCombat?ĬodeCombat is an online programming platform that teaches computer programming in Javascript and Python. The NJCSSA is extremely grateful to have received these licenses because it doesn’t currently take monetary donations. Disclosure: We received free licenses for CodeCombat during the last month of the spring program (when we had to go virtual) and our month-long virtual program this summer.
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