Starting October 1, two courses will be available to teach coding to children and teenagers from age 8-17 years old, in both English and French. The courses are based on Scratch, the popular interface designed by the MIT Media Lab to simplify the face of coding for the young generation. With Scratch, you can program your own interactive stories, games, and animations — and share your creations with millions of like-minded friends online. It helps young people think creatively, reason systematically, and work collaboratively - essential skills for life in the 21st century.
The courses are divided into two age groups:
Teaching Programming to Young Learners (Enseigner la programmation aux enfants) is aimed at teachers, parents, and guardians of children aged 8-11, enabling adults to support children during their coding journey.
Teens Get Coding (Les Ados se mettent au code!) is aimed at 12-17 year olds who want to get started with coding in a fun and interactive system, including the creation of interactive computer games.
If you don’t have a good Internet connection or partial access, then simply download the Scratch system and the openSAP course videos so you can access them and complete the course offline.
All courses are now open for enrollment and available completely free of charge. All you need to sign up is a valid email address and the motivation to learn coding! Courses begin on October 1 and learners will have until October 31 to earn their Record of Achievement and take part in the discussion forums.
By the way...
Teaching Programming to Young Learners was first launched in June on openSAP, attracting over 2,500 learners who shared sharing their experience in the I like, I wish forum (login to read). Here is a reader's digest of what they liked best!
Both my kids (6 and 8) and I liked this course. They kept hanging around when
I watched the videos and have already started playing in the program and love what they can create.
Liz
This course helps kids to enjoy and makes it very interesting for them to learn programming.
Very nice. Thanks Brendan Smith for making it look so simple easy and also illustrating
us with simple examples. Thanks once again. Looking for forward for
more such programming courses in future.
Chandana
Thanks for a fun introduction to a wonderful learning tool set! Well done!
Joseph
Hello Brendan, my 13 years old son and me really enjoyed your excellent, informative
and fascinating course. Now my son is keen on teaching scratch to his friends...
Gaby
I really liked the course and think that Scratch is a great children programming language.
My children (8 and 10 years of age) really enjoy "working" with it. It offers so many possibilities.
The lecturer is very professional and nice to listen to.
Peter
I looked at this course because I have two small children, and because I code using "grown-ups' languages" in the daytime. Very nice way for kids (and non-kids scared or confused by computer speak) to learn programming, this Scratch. And good presentations also. Thanks for this.
Murmelssonic
Love the show & tell approach! I was setup and experimenting within an hour because you showed me rather than lectured to me! I've experimented with programming languages before, but never have I seen the building blocks introduced on such a fun platform!
Debra
I like that the course is/was available for several weeks with all material available the whole time. I could easily squeeze it into my family time. I like that I could download the whole material. I like scratch due to the brick style and the possibility to switch to other languages. I like to see and learn from the other uploaded exercises: how many different ideas!
Claudia
Thanks a lot for the effort you put into creating this course. My 11 year old nephew discovered a whole new world of programming and is now proud owner of his first openSAP certificate. While the lessons were quite easy to follow I had to help him a little understanding some of the final exam questions (German is his mother tongue) but together it was a great experience.
Thorsten