Project Abstract

This project was designed to be an educational tool for teachers who teach Computer Science lessons without much experience in the subject, particularly supply teachers or those working at understaffed schools. I was inspired to choose this as my project after studying Computer Science in high school and often being taught by unqualified teachers of other subjects who were brought in to cover lessons, leading to lessons spent learning theory from slides rather than actual programming. Computer Science was made mandatory for all students aged 5-16 in the UK, increasing the need for qualified teachers, which is an uncommon career path after gaining a Computer Science degree. The tool is a Laravel web application which contains an in-depth Python course, designed to be accessible to students with little programming ability, as well as additional options allowing all users to create their own custom courses to assist with revision. The completed application looks professional and is intuitive to use, both for students using the Python course and for anyone creating their own custom courses. The tool has the user input real python code which is executed to solve challenges. There are elements of gamification such as achievements used to try and retain the interest of the younger target demographic as well as additional security and privacy measures implemented to ensure the safety of that younger user base and their data. When I chose this project I had no experience at all with creating web applications and throughout the process of creating python_idea I enjoyed learning new web development techniques and increasing my solo development ability with several languages including Python, HTML, php and JavaScript.

Keywords: Educational Tool, Web Application, Python

 Conference Details

Session: Poster Session B at Poster Stand 4

Location: Sir Stanley Clarke Auditorium at Wednesday 8th 09:00 – 12:30

Markers: Monika Seisenberger, Xianghua Xie

Course: BSc Computer Science, 3rd Year

Future Plans: I’m undecided