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information systems education journal isedj 17 3 issn 1545 679x june 2019 using codecademy interactive lessons as an instructional supplement in a python programming course jason h sharp jsharp tarleton ...

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                  Information Systems Education Journal (ISEDJ)                                                              17 (3) 
                  ISSN: 1545-679X                                                                                        June 2019 
                                                                            
                                Using Codecademy Interactive Lessons  
                                        as an Instructional Supplement  
                                       in a Python Programming Course 
                                                                            
                                                                            
                                                                Jason H. Sharp 
                                                            jsharp@tarleton.edu 
                                         Marketing and Computer Information Systems 
                                                         Tarleton State University 
                                                         Stephenville,  TX  76402 
                                                                            
                                                                            
                                                                    Abstract 
                                                                            
                  With the recent renewed interest in programming, online learning environments like Codecademy have 
                  become quite popular, boasting some 25 million members worldwide. The purpose of this paper is to 
                  describe the author’s experience using Codecademy Interactive Lessons as an instructional supplement 
                  in an introductory Python programming course. The paper provides a brief background of the literature, 
                  a description of how the author implemented the interactive lessons, a discussion of the positives and 
                  negatives, the extent to which the interactive lessons met the course skill outcomes, and conclusions 
                  about the overall experience. In sum, the Codecademy Interactive Lessons fulfilled 3 of the 6 course 
                  skill outcomes and overall, the positives outweighed the negatives. 
                   
                  Keywords: Codecademy, Python programming, Interactive lessons, Online learning environments 
                   
                   
                                  1. INTRODUCTION                             Interactive    Lessons      as    an    instructional 
                                                                              supplement      in    an     introductory     Python 
                  “Teaching the world how to code” ~ Codecademy               programming course. The paper provides a brief 
                                                                              background of the literature, a description of how 
                  Codecademy  provides  free,  online,  interactive           the author implemented the interactive lessons, a 
                  lessons  for  a  variety  of  programming  topics.          discussion  of  the  positives  and  negatives,  an 
                  Founded in 2011 by Zach Sims and Ryan Bubinski              evaluation of the extent in which the interactive 
                  (Codecademy,  n.d.),  Codecademy  purports  to              lessons  meet  the  course  skills  outcomes,  and 
                  have  25  million  learners  around  the  world.            conclusions  about  the  overall  experience.  The 
                  According to their web site, Codecademy is “an              focus of the paper centers on the implementation, 
                  education  company”  and  the  goal  is  to  make           evaluation,  and  fulfillment  of  course  skill 
                  Codecademy  “the  best  place  for  our  team  to           outcomes. 
                  learn,  teach,  and  create  the  online  learning           
                  experience of the future” (About, n.d., para. 1).                            2. BACKGROUND 
                  Because,  “education  is  broken”  (About,  n.d.,                                       
                  para. 4), Codecademy considers itself a disruptive          While  there  is  a  growing  stream  of  research 
                  force for “building the education the world needs           related to online learning environments in general 
                  –  the  first  truly  net  native  education”  (About,      (e.g., Herrington, Oliver & Reeves, 2003; Huang, 
                  n.d.,  para.  3).  As  the  Codecademy  web  site           2002;  Johnson  &  Aragon,  2002;  Michinov, 
                  asserts, “come help us build the education the              Brunot, Le Bohec, Juhel, & Delaval, 2011; Oncu & 
                  world deserves” (About, n.d., para. 4).                     Cacir,  2011)  and  smart  learning  content  (e.g. 
                                                                              Brusilovsky  et  al.,  2014),  studies  specifically 
                  The  purpose  of  this  paper  is  to  describe  the        focused  on  the  use  of  Codeacademy  as  an 
                  author’s     experience       using     Codecademy          instructional   supplement  are  lacking.  The 
                   
                  ©2019 ISCAP (Information Systems and Computing Academic Professionals)                        Page 20 
                  https://isedj.org/; http://iscap.info                     
                  Information Systems Education Journal (ISEDJ)                                                              17 (3) 
                  ISSN: 1545-679X                                                                                        June 2019 
                  following are representative studies of the use of          alignment. 
                  Codecademy for teaching and learning.                        
                                                                              In an attempt to increase student engagement 
                  Kim and Ko (2017) included Codecademy in their              and performance in a Fundamentals of Software 
                  study of online coding tutorials. They argue that           Development        course       teaching      Python 
                  the  research  investigating  online  learning              programming, Fotaris, Mastoras, Leinfellner, and 
                  environments for programming is both “sparse”               Rosunally (2016) gamified the course using the 
                  and “narrow” resulting in “little holistic guidance         Kahoot! Classroom Response System, which is a 
                  about how to choose effective tutorials . . .” (p.          game-based  learning  and  trivia  platform,  the 
                  321).  Based  upon  a  set  of  curriculum  design          classroom version of the TV game show “Who 
                  dimensions      the     authors     identified    four      Wants To Be A Millionaire?”, and Codecademy’s 
                  pedagogical principles to form the basis of the             Python programming course. To implement the 
                  study including: (1) connecting to learners’ prior          gamification  strategy  the  authors  replaced  the 
                  knowledge,        (2)     organizing      declarative       traditional  one-hour  topical  lectures  with  three 
                  knowledge, (3) practice and feedback, and (4)               20-minute  micro-lectures  each  followed  by  a 
                  encouraging meta-cognitive learning. From these             Kahoot! session in which students responded to 
                  four  guiding  principles,  the  authors  developed         questions. The typical review session comprised 
                  nine  groupings  by  which  to  analyze  the  data          of question and answer time was replaced with 
                  collected. The nine groupings consisted of: (1)             the    “Who  Wants  To  Be  A  Millionaire?”  game 
                  personalization, (2) utilization, (3) contents, (4)         consisting  of  Python-related  questions.  Finally, 
                  organization,  (5)  context,  (6)  actionability,  (7)      Codecademy’s Python programming course was 
                  feedback, (8) transfer learning, and (9) support.           used for students to practice coding. For each of 
                  Within these nine groupings, the authors derived            these  components points were awarded and a 
                  24 pedagogical principles specifically related to           leaderboard  was  provided  in  Blackboard.  To 
                  coding tutorials. In all but one of the principles,         gather  data  the  authors  observed  student 
                  the authors marked them either yes or no. Across            behavior, conducted an online survey, gathered 
                  the  23  pedagogical  principles  Codecademy                self-reported     data     from     students,     and 
                  received  20  “yes”  responses  that  it  met  the          synthesized classroom administrative data such 
                  criteria. The authors concluded that “most online           as  attendance,  tardiness,  use  of  material, 
                  coding tutorials are still immature and do not yet          completion  rates,  and  academic  performance. 
                  achieve many key principles in learning sciences”           Results of the study indicated an overall positive 
                  (p. 325).                                                   response from students to the gamified approach 
                                                                              to the course, completion rates of assignments 
                  In a study exploring the design of online learning          increased slightly, and overall student academic 
                  environment for programming education Olsson                performance increased by about 8%.  
                  and Mozelius (2016) analyzed Codeacademy and                 
                  MyProgrammingLab  by  asking  the  following                Lee  and  Ko  (2015)  included  the  Codecademy 
                  question, “what are the most important factors in           Python  course  in  a  larger  study  designed  to 
                  the design of virtual learning environments for             examine whether novice programmers “produced 
                  self-learning     of   fundamental       skills   and       measurable learning outcomes” after using three 
                  knowledge”? (p. 534). They suggested that both              different online learning tools. In addition to the 
                  “seem  like  promising  additional  tools  for  self-       Codecademy Python course, the tools included 
                  learning in programming courses at the university           were Gidget and Gidget Puzzle Designer. Each of 
                  level”  (p.  94).  Using  a  case  study  research          these tools represented a different form of online 
                  method  they  collected  data  via  interviews,             learning environment which Lee and Ko identified 
                  questionnaires, and group discussions. According            as tutorial, game, and canvas. Using a pretest-
                  to the authors the student’s overall experience             posttest     research     design      the     authors 
                  with Codecademy was positive. The immediate                 hypothesized that there would be “no difference 
                  feedback, in particular, was cited by a students as         in  learner’s  post-test  performance  among  the 
                  a major benefit. Other features of Codecademy               conditions  after  completing  their  assigned 
                  that students liked included the structure of the           learning  activity”  (p.  238).  Overall,  the  study 
                  lessons  and  the  forum.  In  sum,  the  authors           indicated  that  none  of  the  online  learning 
                  identified the most important design factors as             environments resulted in statistically significant 
                  follows:  (1)  usability  and  user-friendliness,  (2)      differences  in  student  performance.  However, 
                  clear    and    well-formulated      feedback,     (3)      there  were  statistically  significant  results  in 
                  gamification, (4) unambiguous exercises, (5) GUI            student performance between Codecademy and 
                  design  and  multi-modality,  and  (6)  curriculum          Gidget Puzzle Designer on the posttest, indicating 
                                                                              that  structured  tutorials  may  improve  student 
                   
                  ©2019 ISCAP (Information Systems and Computing Academic Professionals)                        Page 21 
                  https://isedj.org/; http://iscap.info                     
                 Information Systems Education Journal (ISEDJ)                                                        17 (3) 
                 ISSN: 1545-679X                                                                                  June 2019 
                 knowledge over non-structured environments.              majors (25 out of 30). The course consisted of 26 
                                                                          men and 4 females.   
                 Figueroa and Amoloza (2015) incorporated three            
                 online  interactive  platforms  into  a  multimedia      Rather than offer the interactive lessons as an 
                 course for non-computer science majors to study          optional supplement for which the students could 
                 the impact of these platforms on programming             complete or not complete, the author decided to 
                 anxiety  and  perceived  learning.  The  platforms       require the interactive lessons as a part of the 
                 included Blockly, Code.org, and Codecademy. In           course  requirements  constituting  10%  of  the 
                 this  particular  study,  Codecademy’s  JavaScript       overall course grade. This decision was made to 
                 programming course was used. Students were               motivate the students to complete the interactive 
                 administered the Programming Anxiety Survey,             lessons. A breakdown of the course requirements 
                 consisting  of  six  questions,  before  taking  the     and percent of course grade is provided in Table 
                 course and after taking the course. The analysis         1. A list of the knowledge and skill outcomes is 
                 of  the  survey  data  indicated  a  statistically       provided in Appendix A. 
                 significant difference between the average scores         
                 before and after taking the course. Furthermore,          Course Requirements                          % 
                 data  collected  also  indicated  a  positive  result     Lab Assignments                            35% 
                 among students in terms of perceived learning.            Codecademy Interactive Lessons             10% 
                 The authors conclude that the combination of the          Quizzes                                    10% 
                 three online interactive platforms resulted in “a         Exams (2)                                  30% 
                 significant decrease in learning anxiety and an           Final Exam                                 15% 
                 increase  in  perceived  learning  among  students       Table 1. Breakdown of Course Requirements 
                 who took the course” (p. 65).                             
                                                                          Topics Covered 
                               3. IMPLEMENTATION 
                                                                          The textbook for the course was “Starting Out 
                 Codecademy Teaching Resources                            with  Python  Programming”  (Gaddis,  2018). 
                 As a part of its educational strategy Codecademy         Because  the  course  was  taught  in  an  8-week 
                 provides  several  teaching  resources  including        summer session the author covered the first six 
                 teacher training, class resources, and classroom         chapters:    (1)  Introduction  to  Computers  and 
                 tracking. Teacher training allows instructors to go      Programming, (2) Input, Processing, and Output, 
                 through  the  same  interactive  lessons  as  the        (3) Decision Structures and Boolean Logic, (4) 
                 students free of charge. Class Resources include         Repetition Structures, (5) Functions, and (6) Files 
                 free lesson plans and quizzes. Classroom Tracking        and Exceptions. While the Codecademy Python 
                 allows the instructor to create student accounts         course consists of 21 individual courses covered 
                 and to track individual performance by overview          in 36 lessons the author selected those courses 
                 and by unit. The tracking allows for the instructor      which  matched  the  content  of  the  textbook 
                 to see the percentage of each individual course          chapters: (1) Python Syntax, (2) Tip Calculator, 
                 completed.                                               (3) Strings & Console Output, (5) Conditionals & 
                                                                          Control Flow, (7) Functions, and (14) Loops (See 
                 Course Requirements and Outcomes                         Appendix B). Additional courses were available to 
                 While planning to teach Python programming for           provide  students  an  opportunity  to  apply  the 
                 the first time, the author decided to implement          concepts  from  the  main  courses.  For  each 
                 the  interactive  Python  lessons  provided  by          textbook  chapter  the  associated  interactive 
                 Codecademy.  The  idea  of  these  free,  online,        lessons  were  provided  on  the  course  schedule 
                 interactive lessons was appealing to the author as       (See Appendix C). 
                 an  additional  means  to  potentially  engage            
                 students    beyond  the  traditional  textbook                  4. POSITIVES AND NEGATIVES 
                 materials.  He  was  curious  to  see  how  the           
                                                                          Positives 
                 student’s would respond to the interactive nature        The author identified several positive aspects of 
                 of the lessons and see if the students thought           implementing the Python interactive lessons as 
                 they were a worthwhile activity in addition to the       an instructional supplement. First, and perhaps 
                 customary quizzes, exams, and assignments.               most obvious, the interactive lessons are free. 
                                                                          With the rising cost of traditional textbooks and 
                 The course itself was offered online in an 8-week 
                 summer session via Blackboard Learn 9. A total           the  additional  expense  of  adding  publisher’s 
                 of thirty students were enrolled in the course. The      interactive  content  (e.g.,  MyProgrammingLab) 
                 majority  of  students  were  either  Computer           they  provide  an  easily  accessible,  no-cost 
                 Information Systems or Information Technology 
                  
                 ©2019 ISCAP (Information Systems and Computing Academic Professionals)                        Page 22 
                 https://isedj.org/; http://iscap.info                  
                 Information Systems Education Journal (ISEDJ)                                                        17 (3) 
                 ISSN: 1545-679X                                                                                  June 2019 
                 alternative  which  is  quite  attractive  to  both      instructional strategy students may simply rush 
                 instructors and students.                                through  the  interactive  lessons  to  get  them 
                                                                          completed rather than taking their time to learn, 
                 Second,  the  interactive  lessons  are  self-paced      understand, and apply the content. 
                 and students can repeat the individual courses as         
                 many times as they wish. If the student is having        From  the  author’s  perspective,  there  were 
                 difficulty with a particular topic they can spend as     actually very few negatives from the standpoint 
                 much  time  with  it  as  needed.  Additionally,         of creating and managing the Python course in 
                 students  can  access  the  content  at  their           Codecademy.  It  would  have  been  nice  if  the 
                 convenience and do not need to install special           students  were  automatically  notified  that  their 
                 software or have lab access. With Internet access        accounts were created and what their username 
                 and a browser the student is good to go.                 and password was rather than the author having 
                                                                          to send an individual message to each student in 
                 Third, because of the interactive nature of the          Blackboard.  The  fact  that  the  author  had  to 
                 lessons student receive immediate feedback on            manually  enter  the  percent  completed  values 
                 the code that they are writing. It is no surprise to     from  the  tracking  system  to  the  Blackboard 
                 instructors that today’s students prefer hands-on        gradebook was also a bit time-consuming.   
                 activity  over  reading  a  textbook  or  passively       
                 listening to a lecture. The author found that the            5. EVALUATION OF SKILL OUTCOMES 
                 feedback provided by the interactive lessons was          
                 user-friendly and provided enough guidance to            In  addition  to  identifying  the  positives  and 
                 scaffold the learning experience and help to solve       negatives,  the  author  evaluated  the  use  of 
                 logical or syntactical errors.                           Codecademy as an instructional supplement in 
                                                                          terms of meeting the course skill outcomes (see 
                 Finally, from the author’s perspective, setting up       Appendix A). 
                 and  managing  a  Codecademy  course  via  the            
                 Classroom Tracking interface  was  quite  simple         SO1: Students will create Python programs 
                 and intuitive. Basically, the instructor chooses the     using the Python interpreter and the IDLE 
                 course they want to use and then can customize           IDE 
                 its  name  and  description  to  match  the  course      Because the Python lessons are embedded within 
                 syllabus. The instructor then adds the students to       the Codecademy online, interactive environment 
                 the  course  and  a  username  and  password  is         a specific interpreter and/or IDE is not used. This 
                 automatically created for each student. Students         skill  outcome  was  met outside of Codecademy 
                 can be added, edited, and deleted at any time. An        using  the  Python  interpreter  and  IDLE  IDE 
                 easy-to-follow “Pupil Tracker Guide” is provided         provided on the Python website. 
                 by Codeacademy. The students can then login               
                 and  change  these  items  if  they  choose.  As         SO2: Students will apply the steps in the 
                 students complete individual courses the tracking        program development process 
                 interface displays an overview of each student’s         The program development process followed was 
                 progress  as  well  as  individual  performance  by      that provided by Gaddis (2017): (1) Design the 
                 lesson. The author then entered the completion           program, (2) Write the code, (3) Correct syntax 
                 percentage into the gradebook in Blackboard. The         errors, (4) Test the program, and (5) Correct logic 
                 performance matrix can also be downloaded as a           errors. This skill outcome is partially met using 
                 comma-separate values (.csv)  file  and  opened          the  interactive  lessons.  The  structure  of  the 
                 and edited in Excel.                                     majority of the interactive lessons is to provide 
                                                                          students with a prompt to write a single line of 
                 Negatives                                                code  and  provide  immediate  feedback  or  to 
                 The  implementation  of  the  Python  interactive        provide students with partial code for which they 
                 lessons was not without its negatives. As with any       complete. Students are not required to design 
                 interactive  coding  environment there is limited        and write a program from start to finish. Some 
                 opportunity for creativity by the students since         may find this as a shortcoming of the interactive 
                 the “solutions” are predefined. The downside of          lessons as they provide only partial snippets of 
                 this approach is that students only see potentially      code  to  be  completed,  rather  than  working 
                 one  way  of  solving  a  problem  –  they  are  not     through the full program development process.  
                 allowed to think “outside of the box”. Another            
                 possible downside is that they simply employ a           SO3:  Students  will  implement  variables, 
                 trial-and-error approach to problem solving until        literals, and constants 
                 they  receive  the  correct  answer  rather  than        The  interactive  lessons  provide  students  the 
                 enlisting  critical  thinking  skills.  As  with  any    opportunity to implement variables, literals, and 
                  
                 ©2019 ISCAP (Information Systems and Computing Academic Professionals)                        Page 23 
                 https://isedj.org/; http://iscap.info                  
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...Information systems education journal isedj issn x june using codecademy interactive lessons as an instructional supplement in a python programming course jason h sharp jsharp tarleton edu marketing and computer state university stephenville tx abstract with the recent renewed interest online learning environments like have become quite popular boasting some million members worldwide purpose of this paper is to describe author s experience introductory provides brief background literature description how implemented discussion positives negatives extent which met skill outcomes conclusions about overall sum fulfilled outweighed keywords introduction teaching world code free for variety topics founded by zach sims ryan bubinski evaluation n d purports meet skills learners around according their web site focus centers on implementation company goal make fulfillment best place our team learn teach create future para because broken considers itself disruptive while there growing stream res...

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