Challenge Summary
The client of this application is DARPA. They have asked TopCoder to build a modern web-portal (NoNameSite.com) for education in Science, Technology, Engineering, Math (STEM) and especially focused on Computer Science (CS) education. NoNameSite.com is dedicated to middle and high school students in USA and allow them to learn a lot of interesting topics in a user-friendly environment, which at the same time is productive and professional.
We are preparing to add a new area in NoNameSite.com to teach coding for middle and high school students in USA,. We are turning to you (TopCoder Community) to help us in planning for this exciting project.
Prizes
The top five submissions will be awarded 1st: $500, 2nd: $300, 3rd-5th: 150$. We will also award $150 each for any additional submissions we may decide to purchase.
Requirements
Coding School Concept
The Coding School area will offer a set of programming courses to teach basic programming for 13-18 years old kids. Here is list of issues we need to address in this contest :
- There is an internal discussion whether to offer a graphical-diagrams coding (e.g. waterbear language) or a textual coding (e.g. scripting like python or ruby, or C, or Java), or it should be a mix (e.g. the first few courses are graphical-diagrams while the advanced levels are textual courses).
- It is not clear at this point whether the courses should offer teaching specific programming language (e.g. javascript, html, c++ .. etc) or it should be generic like writing pseudo code.
- We envision something with multiple lessons. For example, the first lesson could be basic commands in a coding box, and after the lesson they have programmed or built something. The next lesson they are adding to that something they programmed or built in previous lesson.. etc, at the end of one course, they have built something albeit very small, so they are not just learning commands and how to program, they are actually doing something.
You need to address the above notes in your idea generation document, and the following should be considered :
- It has to be simple but challenging!
- It has to be fun!
- Any kids in USA should be able to complete the first few lessons without much efforts but then it gets harder.
Achievements System and Badges
- Propose an achievement system with set of badges to use in the coding school, it is expected that each achievement earned will be associated with a badge.
- The purposed system should be flexible that additional awards can be added so that kids always have something to work toward.
Contests
- We are thinking of hosting coding contests in a regular baisis, it will include having a leaderboard, scoring system .. etc. Propose a contest model that can be fun and chellenging.
- At the end of the contest should be one or more winners. Please explain how winners can be determined and any scoring system needed for this.
Organizing Your Submission
Your submission should be primarily or entirely textual, containing a detailed description of your ideas for the coding school concept, achievement system and contests model. Separate your ideas into multiple sections, one for each requirement.
Within each section, please format your ideas so that they are easy to read, using a consistent structure such as bullet points or subtitles for each major idea. For example, you might have a separate heading for programming courses, programming language, achievement system, and so on. The submission should propose a complete and cohesive strategy for coding school, with the ideas in each section fitting together well.
Although there are no limits for number of submissions you can make, you should only make multiple submissions if each one is comprehensive and substantially different from your others. Within these constraints, you are free to describe any number of alternative approaches and extra features. In fact, we encourage you to do so. You can't have too many ideas!
Target Audience
The target audience will be potential NoNameSite.com users.
Judging Criteria
You will be judged on your creativity of the idea and how well you addressed the outlined requirements.
Submission & Source Files
Preview Image
Your preview image must be your idea either written out in English, with any supplemental graphics or photos as necessary.
Submission File
Your preview image must be your idea either written out in English, with any supplemental graphics or photos as necessary.
Source Files
All original source files of the submitted ideas, it can be PDF file, HTML file, Doc File or RTF file, with any supplemental graphics or photos as necessary.
Please read the challenge specification carefully and watch the forums for any questions or feedback concerning this challenge. It is important that you monitor any updates provided by the client or Studio Admins in the forums. Please post any questions you might have for the client in the forums.