Hi folks, I’m seeing some issues surrounding students not having access to needed information, within some of the current Computer Science Principles course bubble activities for 2020-2021. Here’s a summary, and if you have any insights into how to make things more feasible for AP students, that’ll be great:
It’s anticipated that a portion of my AP students will be facing significant difficulties with self-paced virtual learning and classroom learning, per the missing information. This will be especially when they are either ahead or behind others being engaged with me in the collaborative community learning process. While providing the missing information to students within collaborative learning is feasible, it is anticipated to be a potentially confusing situation and slowed process for some students. As parts of the course have the needed information readily available to the students for addressing questions/activities in the unit lessons’ bubbles, and yet other parts do not: for students when they are in a self-paced learning mode (ahead or behind others in the collaborative learning), the parts that are missing needed information are anticipated to significantly affect various students’ ability to access that information from myself and others in a timely manner. This is anticipated to significantly impact their ability to do well during the College Board AP assessment process.
Here’s an example on how this issue arises: In Unit 6/Lesson 1/Bubble 2, the question is “In your own words explain the difference between a problem and an algorithm.” While with the preceding Bubble 1 not having the needed information, I can provide it to the students myself, here’s the issue: a portion of my AP students may well face significant difficulties in such circumstances where they need to engage in self-paced virtual learning and classroom learning. This will be especially when they are either ahead or behind others in the collaborative community learning process, and yet do not have the needed information readily available on their own as they encounter this question and other questions/activities. Here’s all the units and lessons’ bubbles where needed information is likewise missing for addressing their questions/activities within the Computer Science Principles course ( https://studio.code.org/courses/csp-2020 ):
Unit 6/Lesson 1/Bubble 2
Unit 6/Lesson 2/Bubbles 3 and 4
Unit 6/Lesson 3/Bubbles 2 and 3
Unit 6/Lesson 4/Bubbles 4 and 5
Unit 6/Lesson 5/Bubbles 2 and 3
Unit 7/Lesson 5/Bubble 2
Unit 9/Lesson 1/Bubble 2
Unit 9/Lesson 2/Bubbles 2 and 3
Unit 9/Lesson 3/Bubbles 2, 3, and 4
Unit 9/Lesson 4/Bubble 2
Unit 10/Lesson 9/Bubble 4
Unit 10/Lesson 10/Bubble 2
If you can provide any insights on how these issues are to be addressed in an effective manner for AP students, any information available on reviews being done with decision makers at Code.org on this, etc., that’ll be great. Many thanks for your time on this matter.
Many thanks,
Ivan