T.M. Kayode

I am currently going through some of my most awesome experiences in 2018. If you missed the first post check here. For those that do not know; I am a PhD candidate and I also get to teach some undergraduate courses as well. I really love to interact with undergrads because I can relate to some of their issues and It’s really great to lend a critical yet comforting ear while helping them through some of their challenges.

This past semester, I was one of the lecturers for a course titled Research Methodology. I thoroughly enjoyed my teaching experience this year. In this class, one of the major educational objectives was that we wanted our students to be equipped with appropriate research skills which they could employ whilst carrying out their undergraduate dissertation project and also to expose them to skillset they could use for other future research engagements.

Anyway, after discussing with them, we discovered that one major area of concern our students had was computer programming. Quite a number of students were proficient in one or more programming languages but the vast majority were a bit scared of the concepts. I could empathize with their disdain for programming because I too experienced those feelings until I overcame my “fear”. I really wanted to show my students that they could overcome their coding fears too. The question was, “What is the best way to show them?”.

The solution came in form of a training I was a part of organized by Microsoft and the African Development Bank (AfDB). Part of the activities in the first part of the training included participating in a One-hour of Code event using the minecraft hour of code tutorials which can be accessed here. The One-hour of Code is a platform designed to introduce students to the basics of computer programming. I enjoyed going through the One-hour of Code challenges, and I remember saying to myself that this is one educational resource I will expose my kids to. In the current world we live in, proficiency in computer programming is a valuable skill.

In order to help those students who were experiencing some challenges with programming, I organized a one-hour of code event. And they Loved it. It was a great way of bringing variety to the classroom and create a platform for more discourse. Over 100 students participated in the one hour of code event; more than 55% of them completed the task within the first 1-hour and about 78% of them completed the task at the end of the session.

Future Plans: Next year, I plan to host a larger hour of code workshop with a special focus on freshmen and female science and engineering students. It would be my absolute pleasure to be a part of shaping future computer programmers. Would you want to be a part of this? Let me know in the comments.