[Yr11 Information Technology] U2O1 Using Python - analysis on the NCSS Challenge from GROK for VCE Students

[Garth, Lucas A]

Hi all

I’ve used GROK learning (National Computer Science School Challenge) and Invent with Python in the last few years. GROK can be hard to manage the classroom, so it makes sense to get a free login and try it out. Considering it’s $30 per student for a year’s membership, it’s not to be undertaken lightly.

I’d also spend some time working out how you will choose assess the students and avoid plagiarism.  I understand and have used pair programming in the past with GROK learning but that’s when I’ve run programs for Year 10s and I always feel uncomfortable assessing students in team outcomes without a clear rubric and personal contributions pages (which leads to far more authentication requirements – collaboration may be excellent for student learning but it’s complicated for assessment).

GROK’s error debugging tools have tended to work better for HTML courses rather than Python – your students need to have a good understanding of debugging and problem-solving techniques and the ability to use print() regularly to understand how values change within a program before generating the solutions at the exact specification required. Some of the challenges are quite sophisticated.

Another complication is that students are provided with solutions on a weekly basis. This can be of benefit providing excellent points scoring for motivated students, but those who fall behind need to catch up, and they may do this with the help of solutions. Therefore only relying on students copying out the solutions as your sole assessment tool may not be in line with VCAA requirements.

I’m not saying don’t run it, but if you are, definitely go through the course yourself (you will almost certainly learn something about how to structure a course at the very least) and understand how you will deliver it to your students with their own learning needs. Low literacy students generally struggle completing challenges past about week 3 but that shouldn’t stop them completing the Outcome but this would require a SAC to be created that would allow them to demonstrate the requirements of the Outcome as distinct from the requirements of the GROK learning course.

Contact me off line if you want more information.

LG

From: yr11it <yr11it-bounces at edulists.com.au> On Behalf Of Roland Gesthuizen
Sent: Friday, 8 June 2018 4:27 PM
To: Year 11 Information Technology Teachers' Mailing List <yr11it at edulists.com.au>
Subject: Re: [Yr11 Information Technology] U2O1 Using Python

I used the Grok Learning challenge .. we ended up paying for this. From memory it wasn’t much and several of the kids paid a bit extra to get the full suite of tutorials (teachers can see the hints and answers so you can get ahead). Online live helpdesk for the students is backed up by a cool team of Australians based at Sydney Uni. Nice how it can track their progress with the various challenges with a class dashboard so you can see their progress at a snapshot whilst walking around the room giving a hand. It was nice to get some fancy Coding Certificates to hand out at a school assembly to my year11
s instead of those for Maths, Science, Sports etc. https://groklearning.com

--
Roland GESTHUIZEN
http://about.me/rgesthuizen

On 8 Jun 2018, at 4:15 pm, Richard Shelly <RSH at highvalesc.vic.edu.au<mailto:RSH at highvalesc.vic.edu.au>> wrote:

Hi all,

I was wondering if anyone had any resources they could share some advice on how they run Unit 2 Outcome 2 with Python.

I ran Unit 2 last year using Visual Basic, but am switching things over to Python, and am just hoping for some pointers on how others go about it.

If there’s any pre-existing resources to be pointed at as well, even better.

Regards,
Richard
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