How 100,000 Students made our Coding Courses so much better.
April 15, 2017
I created my first code course in 2003. About 7 years ago, I started working with schools to bring coding to the classroom. I discovered that teaching JavaScript and Python (among other languages,) to middle school and high school students, is a whole different animal than teaching adult learners!
The best teacher: 100,000 students and their teachers!
I still remember deploying StudioWeb into our first two classrooms – the first month was a lot of fun! We quickly discovered the flaws in our app, and how we could improve the curriculum.
On a side note: As it turns out, what my father taught me years and years ago (my father was a teacher,) … turned out to be as true today, as it was back in the day: engagement is the key to success in the classroom.
In the first few months of working with schools, we learned that StudioWeb had it about 70% right to begin with. Over the next couple of years, we continued to refine StudioWeb based on student and teacher feedback. With over 100k students working with the StudioWeb app and curriculum, we were able to refine and create an effective, fun and easy to use app and curriculum.
“The first one (HTML5 course) I’m working on is GREAT! I’m on lesson 5 I think it is, and it’s really fun. My brother is on JavaScript and on about lesson 4. We’ll work through them and take some notes. I am really enjoying it so far.
Just wanted to let you know that we started. I really like the format.”Jessica
Here are some of the specific metrics that helped us refine StudioWeb:
- Student usage data – how students used the app.
- Student grades in detail – allowed us to pinpoint problem spots.
- Student feedback and suggestions.
- Teacher feedback and suggestions.
- Live observation – visiting schools and sitting in!
StudioWeb is now on version 3 (with 3.1 about to be released,) and our core curriculum was recreated (from scratch) in late 2015-16 to incorporate new language features and of course, what teachers and students taught us about a great course. For 2017 I am happy to say we will have an new Python course that covers the latest version of Python from the ground up: Powerful Python 3.
Hi Stefan,
This semester I made sure my classes got to start StudioWeb tutorials sooner than I have in the past. I am so glad I did, as many of my kiddos are really learning so much more than just a sampling, which is about all I feel we got to in the past.Anyway…as a result, some of my high achievers have blown past my competency level! So proud of them!
…one of my students just blurted out “mind blown” as he was doing HTML lesson! When I asked him why he said that he told me he just “…learned how to put links in and connect everything!”
Life is good!
If you would like to try StudioWeb, please feel free to contact us.
Stefan Mischook
StudioWeb.com
