Abstract:

Learning how to write code is important. Topics related to Programming have started being of interest to profiles beyond engineers or computer scientists, and even people from fields like psychology or law are increasingly enrolling in courses on programming languages, programming logic or programming fundamentals. This increasing interest is related to the expansion of technology at all levels of organizations and within any department or section of any company, so that, in summary, it is important to embrace technology and learn technological skills at an early stage in everybody’s professional career.

With the recent impact of COVID-19 in global education, most students had to adopt technologies for learning and adapt to online classes, to sessions, and in general, to an educational model with the restriction of no face-to-face sessions. For adults, it was not necessarily something new, but for children and teenagers, it was a big surprise that required the collaboration of teachers, parents and the students themselves, with no guarantee of success but as an improvised experiment in which all had to participate.

Within this context, in this work we will propose a project to measure the impact of implementing an online programming course for students at a high school level of education. In the Community of Madrid, around 700.000 students aged 12-18 may benefit of the design of this course, which is specifically oriented to young students, and is based on an online platform that will help them to develop programming skills at an early stage, so that potentially, they will have a significant advantage to face the technological challenges they may encounter in the future.

Our value proposition is that by introducing programming logic and technological skills at an early stage, the students will be better prepared to face the emerging jobs related to technological trends. We have carried out an initial survey, discovering that despite having no knowledge on programming or specific technological tools, around 30% of students aged 12-18 are interested in learning to program in high school. We are currently extending the survey to the students’ parents and teachers, and will soon know their opinions.

Our proposal will consist on the sketch of the project of implementation of this course, and the design of indicators of efficiency and effectivity that considering all relevant stakeholders will provide a first view of the effect of the project execution on the students, revealing how such learning process may be nurturing their prospects of success at adapting to emerging jobs and roles post COVID-19 era.

Keywords:

Programming, Learning, Online platforms, High-school students.