Teaching coding? Here's what to look for in a learning platform.

Q: How easy would it be for the students to submit assignments?

As a teacher, you are looking for the best solutions that will save time when grading. A lot of teachers I speak to love having a seamless Learning Management System integration. This means students are submitting their work directly into the Learning Management System, ensuring all the assignments and grades will be in one place. This makes it easier for their students, as they don’t need to go into another browser or create any secondary accounts. For the teacher, it ensures their students’ work can be easily located and all the submissions are on one platform.

‍Q: How easy is it to set up the assignments for my students?

There is a ‘learning curve’ period, where students and teachers learn how to use a novel tool and gradually start to feel comfortable administering it themselves. Like with any tool, professors want to know how best to start. The follow up question I ask is, what do you want to achieve? If you are looking into simple black box testing (give an input, what’s the expected output), there are many tools on the market that could do that for you. The user experience, when it comes to setting up test cases, can vary. The level of flexibility when it comes to student submissions can also vary. Some products require exact text/numerical matching to be correct, others allow for flexibility. Having the flexibility also ensures students don’t get discouraged even if their solutions were correct. If you are looking into more advanced testing, a lot of teachers like to go the unit testing approach. Some systems can be cumbersome to set up unit testing, as you might have to set up each individual case. While others will have a smoother User Interface. Some systems might also not be able to support the framework that you would like to use, or the programming language you might be interested in teaching. 

With any system, there will always be a learning curve setting up the environment to be ideal for you and the students. Having the support and well documented guides is crucial to ensure a successful adoption. Which leads me to the next question you might ask yourself. 

Q: What support will I receive when it comes to licensing? 

Some products might have limited support and this may very well only be offered on higher paid models. Others will ensure the best teacher experience possible regardless of licence size. This is always something to consider as well, as you never know what questions might come up while setting the system up, or what might happen during the duration of your course.

‍Q: How much will this cost? 

Different tools will have different price points, especially given the different capabilities and levels of support. There are a lot of free resources that teachers can use, but of course with free options, support, further development and features might be limited. There are many paid for products out there, and those might have more features, the ability to continuously develop and improve and better customer support. While budgeting comes down to what you have available, you have to think about what would be worth the investment for you and your students to get the maximum benefits and learning experience.

‍Overall…

With a multitude of aspects to consider and a range of products out there, the search for the ideal instructional tool for coding can be a complex one. And, these are only some of the main points that I tend to come across when I speak to teachers who are exploring new tools. Every teacher is in a different situation. As computer science education grows, we hope this can help educators find the solution that is right for them!