Picking out an online coding course isn’t easy to do. At first glance, they all claim to teach kids vital STEM skills in an enjoyable, supportive atmosphere.
How can mothers pick the pretenders from the best online coding courses? Please read on to learn more.
Video Games at the Heart
Elite online coding courses put video games at the centre of everything they do, using them to frame coding lessons and as a motivational tool. Sign up for weekly coding sessions online that teach your kid how to program their own video games, ones they can show off afterwards to friends and family.
Young kids can create a Pac-Man-style game, while older kids can unleash their coding skills and create more advanced and complicated games. Plus, leading programs embed gamification concepts into their lessons, making learning as engaging and addictive as playing the games.
Gamification nudges kids along by breaking up the various coding tasks into digestible chunks and, as the name suggests, turns them into games. If you want your kids to not just enjoy but love learning to code, put video games at the heart of the sessions.
Vital Coding Languages
Not every computer program teaches the same roster of coding languages. In fact, some emphasize drag-and-drop programs, like Scratch, which aren’t actually coding languages. They’re just programs meant to give novice students a sense of what coding is like, but professional coders never use them in the field.
Look for an online coding course that emphasizes some of the following coding languages:
- Python
- Java
- JavaScript
- C#
- C++
Learning these languages gives kids the tools they’ll need one day to get hired by a wide variety of tech companies or carve out their own path in the industry. From Netflix to Minecraft, many of the most popular apps, websites, and video games run on these languages.
Small Classrooms
Learning a new subject can be difficult, especially when kids are young and the topic is complicated. Real programming lessons involve absorbing mathematical concepts, like integers, vectors, and even trigonometry.
Young children shouldn’t have to shout over their classmates to get their teacher’s attention. Similarly, teachers shouldn’t have to navigate a load and disruptive classroom to teach the course material. You know you can trust an online coding program that limits class size to four students per teacher.
Such a low ratio ensures every student has the needed support. Ideally, the program should also have no mandatory minimum, so it runs no matter what, even if your child is the lone student.
After the disruptions of the past few years, you don’t want to get your child excited for an extracurricular, only for it to be cancelled to circumstances out of your control.
Mothers want their children to have the underlying skills to know how the digital world works. That way, young kids grow into adults who can shape technology rather than have technology shape them. Moms also want their kids to have employable skills that help them find great jobs. Look for an online coding course that touches on all the above, and you’ll be well on your way.
