Khan Academy Programming Curriculum (for CSHS)

An overview of how we teach computer programming on Khan Academy, both via curriculum and community, plus how classrooms use it and our future plans.
Presented at CS4HS@Cal conference.

Transcript

1. Khan Academy Programming
   !
   compsci-feedback@khanacademy.org
   

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2. What we teach
   Languages
   Uses
   Java Python
   C++
   Haskell
   JavaScript
   Ruby
   Scheme
   Games
   Animation
   Hardware
   Robotics
   Data Science
   Simulation
   Mobile
   Websites
   Lua
   No Installation Needed
   Shareable
   Fun for Anyone
   Gateway Drug
   

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3. ACE editor
   JSHint ! BabyHint ! Loop Checker
   ProcessingJS
   How students program
   

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4. Curriculum
   

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5. What we cover
   Drawing
   Variables
   Animation
   Text
   Functions
   Logic
   Looping
   Arrays
   Objects
   

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6. How we teach: “Talk-throughs”
   Uses same environment they program in
   Making passive instruction interactive!
   https://www.khanacademy.org/cs/programming/drawing-basics/p/intro-to-drawing
   

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7. How we improve talk-throughs
   Analytics
   

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8. How we improve talk-throughs
   BEFORE
   AFTER
   

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9. How we assess learning: challenges
   staticTest StructuredJS Esprima
   

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10. How we improve challenges
    Challenges Attempted: 244,168
    !
    Challenges Completed: 162,858
    !
    Challenge Completion Rate: 67%
    Overall Analytics
    

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11. How we improve challenges
    Manual Feedback
    

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12. Giving more opportunity for practice: Projects
    

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13. (Upcoming) Project peer evaluation
    

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14. Advanced curriculum
    Natural
    Simulations
    Games & Visualizations
    

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15. Translated curriculum
    Mostly translated in Spanish, partially in Portuguese/Hebrew
    (talk-throughs are subtitled, not dubbed)
    

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16. Community & Cult(ure)
    

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17. Questions & Answers
    

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18. Votes and Spin-offs!
    

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19. The Hot Programs
    

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20. The Characters
    Hopper (...is a HER!)
    Winston
    Oh Noes Guy,
    the Error Buddy
    

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21. ...The Avatars!
    

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22. Classroom Use
    

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23. Self-paced + Paired projects
    https://www.khanacademy.org/coach-res/reference-for-coaches/teaching-computing/a/pair-programming-in-the-classroom
    

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24. Monitoring progress
    https://www.khanacademy.org/coach-res/reference-for-coaches/teaching-computing/a/tracking-progress-of-programming-students
    

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25. Case Study: Lowell
    Additional projects:
    TRON, Pong,
    Hangman, Book
    https://www.khanacademy.org/teaching-computing/a/programming-case-study-lowell-high-school
    “Now, I spend much of my time
    thinking about how to bring out the
    power of us all coming together in the
    same room to learn to program.”
    

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26. Case Study: Thailand
    “What’s in the News”
    !
    “Technology Spot”
    !
    CryptoCat for Chat
    !
    Additional projects:
    Rock-Paper-Lizard-Spock
    Caesar Cipher Encryption
    !
    https://www.khanacademy.org/teaching-computing/a/programming-case-study-going-beyond-the-ka-curriculum
    

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27. Increasing Diversity
    

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28. Completion per gender
    For the first challenge:
    !
    Of the people who start it,
    34% are female
    66% are male
    !
    86.2% of males complete it (20762/23940)
    86.7 of females complete it (10770/12494).
    http://cs-blog.khanacademy.org/2014/03/challenge-completion-across-gender-and_4.html
    

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29. DonorsChoose program
    khanacademy.org/donors-choose
    Teachers get $100 codes for each female student,
    and $500 if 4 complete
    Experiment groups:
    $500 code for 4 completing,
    $500 cash for 4 completing,
    $0 for 4 completing
    1544 teachers signed up
    ~2000 females completed
    ~2000 males completed
    

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30. The Hard Parts
    

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31. Reducing cheating
    SELECT user_key.name, stashed_code, backup_timestamp from [UserScratchpad]!
    WHERE stashed_code CONTAINS '"Shawshank Redemption”,'!
    ORDER BY backup_timestamp DESC;
    1) Disable copy/paste 2) De-index solutions
    

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32. Moderating the community
    

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33. Future Plans
    

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34. Algorithms 101
    

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35. More languages
    HTML/CSS ?
    Blockly?
    

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36. How can we help you?
    compsci-feedback@khanacademy.org
    

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