As I was working on my Scratch project with my students, I wanted a way to bring all our work together in kind of an LMS format where I can track their progress. I saw Scratch had a sister app called Itch, but unfortunately, the free version did not offer much and it was too expensive to pay for. I searched for other coding apps and I came across Code.org. It is very similar to Scratch where the user can drag pieces of code and create a script. What I liked about Code, is that they offer the teacher the opportunity to create a class and the teacher can create a curriculum and enroll their students in it. The teacher can follow the students' progress and create assessments, too. The platform is similar to other popular LMS's. There is a dashboard where the teacher can have their own feed and classes that make it easily accessible. The site is very user-friendly and I have found that the loading time of the page is quicker than Scratch. There is a significant difference in the loading time of the Scratch page vs the Code.org page and that is a huge plus for me. There are tutorial videos that the students can watch before the lesson and this site really promotes student collaboration when working on their coding projects. There are a ton of activities; they range from drawing, designing games to creating stories. There is a really cool feature call the Computer Science Fundamentals and teaches the fundamental of Computer Science using cartoon characters. The site also uses familiar games and characters like Angry Birds and Star Wars for their curriculum, which makes it attractive for everyone. As I continue to work on Scratch, I am going to try and implement Code.org and see which one the students prefer and which app they think is more user-friendly and easier to use.
