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Tell me more about what the course covers...

The course will cover the learning AND teaching of core programming concepts including:

• sequences

• iteration and conditional iteration

• selection (ifs)

• variables

• events

• abstraction/methods/parameters

• lists

All topics will be taught using novel and cognitively scaffolded methods (focussing on low cognitive load scaffolded knowledge construction -- you aren't just told "go write a program"). No textbook is required. You will also learn about common difficulties students have and there will be a pedagogy and equity section every 2 weeks with topics including: pair/buddy programming, peer instruction, culturally relevant teaching, the state of K-12 CS education/standards, managing an equitable lab classroom, and interdisciplinary standards alignments.

How and when will I need to work on this class?

Will it fit in with my other classes and workload?

For most traditional courses, you probably look at the weekly syllabus and check for homework/programming assignments, midterms, weekly quizzes, and big projects that you need to plan extra time for.

This class is different. There’s no midterm. There’s no big project due week <whatever>. Each week you have a list of learning experiences to work through (some graded, some not) totaling between 8-10 hours. You can repeat graded assessments each week (until the 11:59pm Sunday deadline) if you want to improve your learning/score.

How might that work? As an online course, you have a lot of flexibility in when you do your work. However we recommend you save 10 hours a week on your schedule so you don’t “ignore it” in favor of your in-person classes.

Here’s a sample schedule. While we recommend you start before the weekend in case you need to ask questions of the tutors or professor, once you get to know the course a bit, you could plan your 8-10 hours whenever fits your schedule each week.

Monday/Wednesday/Friday: Weekend as backup