The demand for coding education has increased considerably in recent years, with more than half of all US high schools requiring CS courses to be offered. With courses gaining popularity and classrooms growing, finding effective tools to support coding education is hugely important.
Coding is a skill that is learned best by doing. Students are going to need support to practice consistently and to make mistakes. The downside of this approach is that without the correct tooling the feedback cycle can be slow and as class sizes grow, this method is not scalable. If teachers continue to manually grade all submissions, the workload can add up rapidly and be prone to human error, not to mention the all too common burnout that so many teachers face. Another downside is that students won’t be able to get the feedback right away while the concepts are still freshly taught.
This is where tools, such as CodeGrade could be a good fit. Here are 5 reasons why CodeGrade improves your high school computer science classroom:
1. Automatic grading
As a teacher, you’re probably wondering “How can I reduce the amount of grading I have to do, but still give my students the feedback they need to succeed?
Luckily for coding assignments, CodeGrade does it automatically. Our autograder will allow students to get instant feedback on their coding submission. Students are able to see how they can improve their work while coding, and try as many times as needed until they are satisfied with their work. As a teacher, you now spend much less time grading, and more time giving students tailored feedback.
2. Built-in content
For those teaching computer science for the first time, creating assignments can be intimidating. “Where do I even start?"
To give you a head start, CodeGrade comes with an Introduction to Python curriculum with 35+ fun and engaging fully autograded assignments designed together with Harvard-Westlake School. For those teaching Java, we have a built-in Introduction to Java curriculum with 40+ autograded assignments, which you can use to complement your curriculum.
As a teacher, you can pick and choose whichever assignments that fit your course best. We believe that all educators have their own teaching styles, and we support them all. Teachers can modify the built-in assignments to fit their teaching style and vision.
3. Create custom assignments
Not your first time teaching? Do you already have assignments you have created and shared over the years?
CodeGrade can be used as a tool for students to submit their assignments. When students submit their coding assignments into CodeGrade, all their code will be available in one place. Teachers no longer have to unzip files or run programs locally. Automation can be added to existing assignments as well, to make grading even faster.
If you are using a learning management system (LMS), the submissions will be linked to the student account in the LMS. To maintain COPPA compliance, the teacher can create anonymous accounts for the students, where none of the student data is shared with us.
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