Hi there! My name is Kylie, and I’m part of the team at Code.org. Today, I’m excited to show you what it’s like for students when they log in and start a coding activity. Let’s dive in!
When students first sign in, what they see depends on whether their teacher has assigned any material yet. If nothing is assigned, students will land on the home page. Here, they can explore and find a course or start a project on their own. If the teacher has already assigned material, students will go straight to the overview page.
On the overview page, students can see all the chapters or lessons they’ve started. If they’ve already begun working on something, they can easily pick up where they left off by clicking the “Continue” button. There’s also a “Lesson Resources” button for each lesson, which takes them to helpful documentation.
Each lesson has different types of levels. Some levels show information or videos, others have multiple-choice or free-response questions, and some involve coding activities. There are even levels where students can choose between different activities.
Let’s take a closer look at coding activities, which are the most common. In these activities, there’s a big area called the workspace for coding, along with a display area and instructions at the top. Depending on the activity, the layout might change a bit to help students learn different concepts.
For younger students, coding activities often use blocks that they can drag and drop. As students get more experienced, they can choose to write their code in text or keep using blocks. When using blocks, hovering over them gives extra information and sometimes documentation.
Some coding levels will tell students if their work is correct or not. These are called validated levels and are common in Computer Science Fundamentals courses and Hour of Code activities. Helpful hints or tips can be found in the instructions pane, usually shown by a light bulb icon.
Other levels are more open-ended, meaning students decide when they’re done. In these cases, they press the “Finish” button. Help and tips are often available in the instructions pane as a separate tab.
If you’re a teacher and want to see what your students experience, you can use the teacher panel on the right side of your screen. Just open it up and select “Student” to view their perspective.
Thanks for learning about the student experience with me today! If you have any questions, feel free to ask for help!
Start by logging in and exploring the home page. See if you can find a course or project that interests you. Write down the name of the course or project you want to try and explain why it caught your attention.
Visit the overview page and list all the chapters or lessons available. Choose one lesson and click on the “Lesson Resources” button. Describe two resources you found and how they might help you with the lesson.
Pick a coding activity from the lesson and decide whether you want to use blocks or text to code. Complete the activity and share your experience with a classmate. Discuss what you liked about the method you chose.
Try a validated coding level and see if your code is correct. If it isn’t, use the hints or tips provided to improve your code. Write a short reflection on what you learned from the feedback.
Use the skills you’ve learned to start your own project. Decide when you’re done and press the “Finish” button. Present your project to the class and explain the coding concepts you used.
Sure! Here’s a sanitized version of the transcript:
—
Hi! My name is Kylie, and I’m a member of the product management team here at Code.org. Today, I’ll be showing you what it looks like when students sign in, from when they first sign in to when they start a coding activity.
What students see when they sign in depends on whether or not you have assigned the material yet. If you have not assigned the material, they will be taken to the home page. Here, students can find a course on their own or start a project directly. If you have already assigned material to your students, they will be taken directly to the overview page.
On the overview page, students can find all of the chapters or lessons that they’ve already begun working on in the course. If they’ve already started course content, they can quickly continue where they left off by pressing the “Continue” button. For each lesson, they can also click the “Lesson Resources” button, which will take them to their documentation.
Looking at the student’s view of the overview page, we can see that for each lesson, there are multiple types of levels. These include levels that show information or videos, levels with multiple choice or free response questions, levels that involve coding activities, and some levels that allow students to choose between different activities.
Now, let’s take a more in-depth look at the most common type of activity: coding activities. Here, you can see a large area for coding called the workspace, along with a display area and an area for instructions typically at the top. Depending on the coding activity, the experience will look a little different, as the material will be geared towards learning various concepts.
As we look at the different coding activities, notice how the layouts can change. Coding activities targeted at younger students allow them to drag and drop blocks of code. As students learn more, they can choose to edit their code in text or continue to edit in blocks. When editing in blocks, hovering over them will reveal additional information and sometimes documentation.
As students code, some levels will indicate if their work is correct or incorrect. These validated levels are often found in Computer Science Fundamentals courses and Hour of Code activities. In these levels, hints or helpful tips for students can be found in the instructions pane, usually represented by a light bulb icon.
Other levels are more open-ended and require students to decide when they’re done with their work. In these levels, they press the “Finish” button and often have help and tips available in the instructions pane as a separate tab.
Lastly, remember that as a teacher, if you ever want to see what a student’s experience looks like, you can use the teacher panel on the right-hand side of your screen. Simply open it up and select “Student.”
Thanks for learning about the student experience today! If you have any questions, don’t hesitate to reach out for support!
—
This version maintains the essential information while removing any unnecessary details.
Coding – The process of writing instructions for a computer to follow. – Example sentence: “In our computer class, we learned the basics of coding by creating a simple game.”
Activities – Tasks or exercises designed to help learn or practice coding skills. – Example sentence: “The teacher prepared fun coding activities to help us understand how loops work.”
Students – People who are learning about coding and computers. – Example sentence: “The students were excited to see their coding projects come to life on the screen.”
Lessons – Structured periods of learning about coding and computer science. – Example sentence: “Each week, we have new lessons that teach us different coding concepts.”
Workspace – The digital area where you write and test your code. – Example sentence: “I organized my workspace to make it easier to find the coding tools I need.”
Blocks – Visual elements used in block-based coding to represent code instructions. – Example sentence: “We used blocks to build our program, which made it easier to understand the code.”
Teacher – A person who helps students learn about coding and computers. – Example sentence: “Our teacher showed us how to debug our code when it didn’t work as expected.”
Resources – Materials or tools that help with learning coding, like tutorials or websites. – Example sentence: “The teacher provided online resources to help us practice coding at home.”
Correct – To fix errors in code so that it works properly. – Example sentence: “I had to correct a mistake in my code before the program would run successfully.”
Experience – The knowledge or skill gained from writing and testing code. – Example sentence: “With more experience, I became better at solving coding challenges.”
