What’s the story
The line between IT and non-IT staff is becoming increasingly blurred. Being able to read and use code, even at a very basic level, is quickly becoming essential for the modern workforce. In order to be code literate, there are some fundamental concepts and knowledge that is important across all varieties of code.
Codecademy is a free online platform that offers coding classes for different programming languages including Python, PHP, jQuery, JavaScript, AngularJS, and Ruby, as well as markup languages like HTML and CSS. The the Codecademy platform doesn’t require any software downloads and a user’s progress is saved online as they go.
Phase I: 11 participants
[team photo]
The purpose of the Phase I pilot was to test out the online resource Codecademy as a tool to increase coding literacy for TPS employees in a fun and informal group setting. Ten weekly sessions were held from late-March to late-May, 2014. We administered pre- and post-surveys to try and gauge participants’ progress, and had participants evaluate their experience.
Phase II: 45 participants
[final group photo]
Building on the success of Phase I, the purpose of Phase II of the City’s Codecademy Club was to expand the initiative to other locations across the corporation, thereby offering the opportunity to participate to more TPS employees. Nine facilitators were recruited and we supplied them with a “kit” and training on how to run their own Codecademy Club. An invitation for participants was sent across the corporation with an endorsement from the Chief Information Officer. Ten Weekly sessions at five separate locations were held from…. After the ten weeks, facilitators and participants convened to celebrate, share successes, and lessons learned.
Status:
Phase I: Complete
Phase II: Complete
Call to action:
Those interested in facilitating their own Codecademy Clubs can express interest to the Innovation Lab who can give an overview of our facilitation kit and process.
Resources:
The project team developed Codecademy Club kit [link].
Kit includes:
- instructions on how to start and run your own Codecademy Club
- example pre and post surveys
- lessons learned from previous sessions and suggestions for different learning models
Contact:
The Innovation Lab 