"Learn Software Like a Game"... 'Online Coding Party' Starts Today

[Asia Economy Reporter Seulgina Jo] The Ministry of Science and ICT and the Ministry of Education announced on the 22nd that they will operate the ‘2020 Online Coding Party Season 1’ until July 5 to expand the base of software education.

The ‘Online Coding Party’ is a nationwide experiential event held twice a year since 2015, designed so that anyone interested in software can learn coding and more easily and enjoyably like playing a game.

This year’s ‘Online Coding Party Season 1’ introduced the artificial intelligence category for the first time in addition to the existing block coding, text coding, and computational thinking categories, and added new programs.

The block coding category consists of a total of four programs, including EBS’s ‘Run, Pengsoo!’, ‘Ttuang and the First Steps of Block Coding’, and ‘Coding with Spotty!’ which teach basic software concepts with popular characters, and Techville Education’s ‘Coding Galaxy Adventure Planet’, which helps learn sequence and decomposition structures through a 3D game format.

The text coding category offers two programs: Alice’s ‘Rabbit’s Carrot Collection’, where learners move a rabbit to collect carrots while learning Python, and Wiz School’s ‘Challenge the Escape Room!’, which teaches JavaScript by solving given tasks themed around an escape room.

In the computational thinking category, programs such as Logibrothers’ ‘Improving Computational Thinking’, which comprehensively assesses potential types across five areas including data processing and reasoning and provides four types of puzzle game problems, and Vivas Korea’s ‘Beaver Challenge to Develop Computational Thinking’, which allows participants to experience problems from the Beaver Challenge, a computational thinking competition involving 63 countries worldwide, are prepared.

In the newly established artificial intelligence category, Alice’s ‘Solid Foundation AI Mission’ program offers challenges to solve AI problems using various data based on Python.

The Ministry of Science and ICT plans to hold ‘Coding Party Flex!’ and ‘Coding Party High Five!’ events on the Software-Centered Society Portal for participants. Participants who collect two or more certificates issued upon completing each mission of the online coding party and post and verify them on personal SNS (Coding Party Flex!), or respond to the online coding party survey (Coding Party High Five!), will be entered into a draw to receive prizes.

Song Kyung-hee, Software Policy Officer at the Ministry of Science and ICT, said, "The ‘Online Coding Party’ is a software and AI education experiential event suitable for an era requiring non-face-to-face education," and added, "We hope many people participate in the ‘Online Coding Party’ to become familiar with software and have the opportunity to develop computational thinking skills."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.