This article explains the experience of a teacher given the task of teaching lat-year students, around the age of 17 and 18 years old, Computer Science.
The course requirement was to use the Khan Academy (KA) website to teach the AP Computer Science Principles course.
AP Computer Science Principles (CSP) course
The AP Computer Science Principles (CSP) course is based in America but is taught elsewhere. Although it is an ‘advanced program’ it presents beginner material to Computer Science in a limited area of fields.
The material is provided by the Khan Academy, a free website that the teacher and students can use to study through the following areas:
- Digital Information
- The Internet
- Programming
- Algorithms
- Data Analysis
- Simulations
- Online Data Security
- Computing Innovations
These areas are supplemented with assistance for the AP CSP exam. The Khan Academy website is known for its free material, such as in mathematics, that are informative and easy to use.
The course does not adequately cover the subject of Computer Science and could be seen as incomplete (e.g. no hardware). But it does cover the material required for the CSP exam.
How this Course was taught
In this case the course did not include any coursework or final exam. Although the Khan Academy material had to be the focus of the course, there was flexibility for the teacher to teach in any given approach.
Essentially no information, help or instructions were given, and no assessment or evaluation were required for students, teacher or course.
Course Preparation
Again, fortunately, there was some preparation time to identify the positives and negatives of the material on the Khan Academy although there was no information about the students prior knowledge or abilities in either Computer Science or English.
Preparation existed in the form of what the material was about, how might it be explained, and the time the sections should take.
First Lesson
Fortunately the group of 4 students were talented and proficient in English, although the course was presented during the Covid outbreak so the initial lessons were in the classroom whilst the second half of the course was online.
The students had their own tablet to digest the online course material and complete the exercises. They had no interest. Whilst the students were excellent in listening once they were asked to look at their tablet they were disengaged with the course.
Simply put, the online course was useless for these students. Given the choice of being ‘taught’ or using the online system, the students wanted to be taught. As one student put it “we could do this at home, what is the point of a teacher?“
She was right of course. So what now?
Old style Teaching
Armed with a pen and whiteboard and a page of notes on the areas to be covered, I asked of the students understood about bits and binary numbers. No. We were at the beginning.
Explaining the basics of how computers worked seemed new to the students. Despite this, every new concept was keenly absorbed if not immediately understood.
But the students were competent and given interest capable of any task required. They essentially did understand and were motivated to be included when the pen was given to them to answer challenges on the board. Male and female alike.
The old style of teaching with pen and board, blended with the new style of student interaction and engagement, was successful.
Online Quizzes
To check the progression of the student’s understanding there are section and unit quizzes on the Khan Academy (KA) website.
The students attempted the first quiz with mixed success. The first issue was with the actual question itself. Despite the excellent ability of the English of the students, the questions were sometimes very long and verbose. These questions were universally problematic.
Are there students in America that do not speak English as their first language? If so, these questions were not designed for them.
The content, presentation and design of the material and quizzes is good on the KA website, yet to International students the resource was not engaging or designed for them.
Course Content
The course starts off with interesting, well-structured and relevant information. Detailing digital information and how computers use binary for text and media.
The second section is called The Internet but moves into more general network content. This is not entirely out of place but difficult to go from zero to networks so soon. Students were ok with the material so acceptable.
Then programming.
What is going on here? The CSP exam is based on pseudo code and the KA website uses a form of JavaScript. there is a built-in editor but this is not the approach to either teach Computer Science Principles or programming.
Programming
The students were to be taught python in the next semester so it seemed logical to use python. The students were in agreement.
But to follow the CSP course the students needed to also learn pseudo code.Not surprisingly the students realized the pointlessness of this quickly.
In defense of the college board what language do you use? Do you keep changing? Do some schools have a bigger advantage if they teach the same language to students? So using pseudo code does solve these problems.
But teaching students without assessment or exam participation has motivation issues and teaching pointless aspects of a subject are a fast way to disengage students.
Essentially python is easier to learn than pseudo code and is useful. Students ignored the pseudo code and focused on learning the python.
But the course was not on programming and the students were given multiple programming concepts without any time for practice. University students would be given double the amount of time and ample lab exercises.
The KA website quizzes were now useless as they were based on pseudo code. Obviously the CSP exam uses pseudo code so the website has no choice in this regard.
But now we are teaching students programming using an inadequate, poor approach, to keep to given structure online, and we are now distant from this.
If you are not doing the CSP exam then there is no point learning the pseudo code.
The rest of the material is semi-related to the field of Computer Science, and differs in the level of difficulty.
Computer Science
In fact the initial instructions were to teach “Computer Science” from the KA website which is a different course.
What seems strange was this course was almost entirely about algorithms and required students to have learnt programming beforehand.
The material seemed completely inappropriate for Computer Science, as if one sections had been completed and then left like a derelict house.
In fact the author was the same author of a popular book on, guess what? Yes, algorithms.
Computer Science Principles
So does the course really cover the principles of Computer Science? No, well maybe partially.
How does it compare with the syllabus from Cambridge, ACM and IEEE, and other related providers (e.g. class 11 and 12)? It is incomplete.
There must be reasons behind the syllabus for the AP Computer Science Principles course, and in the main it is not a bad course.
But programming should be taught separately and with a better approach.
Questions should be sensitive to the diversity of participants such as second language learners.
New Teachers to CSP
If you have to teach this course, what advice could be given?
Teach yourself and don’t rely on the website, the students are not interested in that form of self-learning.
Students want to both involved and entertained. Include them and they are motivated.
If you have to teach programming let the students try it for themself. One lecture and they are bored. One session of challenges and they are engaged.
Teaching During Covid
Teaching online has completely disconnected some students to education. Life is difficult for these young people. They are suffering from the important social interaction taken away from them.
Teachers are not trained in online teaching and most are boring. Students are easily lost and motivating the students that the system has already let down, is almost impossible online.
Online education is better than nothing but we are failing our children. Schools and Universities are institutions, but they are failing and loosing their customers.