Case Study: Code Monkey Uses Learning by Doing as a Learning Engagement Strategy

Code Monkey, a website and teaching tool used to help young children learn to write computer code, is a highly successful program that utilizes learning by doing as a learning engagement strategy. In an article titled The Room Is Not Enough: Student Engagement in Active Learning Classrooms (Langley, D., Metzger, K., 2020) the authors define active learning as a phrase used to indicate instructional strategies that introduce student activity into traditional lecture courses and promote student engagement. This means that students are actively engaged in the instruction rather than being subject to silently listen to lectures and rely on note taking for their academic progression. This learning engagement strategy is designed to immerse students in a learning environment by making them a part of the lecture using media, interactive studies, discussions, and group activities. This case study will attempt to showcase how Code Monkey manages to do this, and tie in this concept with three of the principals of learning engagement to back the claim.

Code Monkey uses learning by doing as a learner engagement strategy by utilizing apps and web-based courses. Children engage with game characters as they teach them step-by-step processes to code in a fun, interactive manor. By interacting with the young learners, the game characters designed to help teach the fundamentals of coding create an active learning atmosphere. Algorithms automatically score and track a student’s progress and provide teachers with a critical toolkit to assess and provide feedback to the students, creating a direct line of communication between teachers and students to propel learning engagement strategies. This active learning approaches, supplemented by various other engagement strategies, has proven valuable and won awards from many educational organizations that are technology based in nature. By bolstering professional development in young children, Code Monkey is helping them to believe they can succeed in this field from a very young age and encouraging them to set goals for their future in the process.

Curiosity – 1st principal of learning engagement (bridge the gap)

In the book Trends and Issues in Instructional Design and Technology (Reiser, R., 2018) the author covers the first principal of learner engagement which is prompting motivation to learn through curiosity aroused by bridging the gap between a learner’s perceived knowledge and the knowledge to be learned from the learning task. The first step in this process is to inspire curiosity in the learner, which is usually accomplished by presenting unexpected stimuli by changing up the pace and presentation of the lecture using various types of media or interactive activities. Once curiosity has been inspired the learner will feel less bored, and they will begin to draw connections between their current knowledge and the knowledge to be learned. This is the moment the learner tends to bridge the gap between the two themselves, and they take the initiative to learn the task on their own. Once this critical moment has taken place, we begin to see the full effects of this principal of learning engagement take hold.

Code Monkey helps the learner accomplish this by presenting to them a variety of learning modules, videos, and exercises that help to keep the learner engaged. As previously suggested, the learner tends to feel boredom subside and they begin the process to bridge the gap between their current knowledge and the knowledge to be learned. One method the program uses is the interactive experience students have between the characters in an interactive game experience and the learner. The characters teach learners the fundamentals of coding by presenting information to the students and checking on their understanding through small form quizzes and questions. The students will then learn by doing, a type of active learning, and write fundamental lines of code that are friendly to the age level of the student.

Satisfying Outcomes – 4th principal of learning engagement (feedback)

Learning by doing is further exemplified by Code Monkey as a key learning engagement strategy utilized in the products curriculum through the fourth principal of learning engagement. The book Trends and Issues in Instructional Design and Technology (Reiser, R., 2018) also discusses the difference between intrinsic and extrinsic motivation. This is found under the fourth principal of learning engagement, anticipation of and experience of satisfying outcomes from a learning task. Extrinsic motivation is motivation that stems from the idea of external reward or punishment from one’s actions. Intrinsic motivation stems from the learner’s sense of self accomplishment and purpose from their behaviors. The theory the book presents is that by focusing less on managing a learner’s motivation with rewards or punishment and more on feedback and constructive criticism we are enabling the learner to cultivate intrinsic motivation characteristics. Those who are intrinsically motivated tend to feel a larger sense of accomplishment and are more satisfied with the outcomes from mastering a learning task.

Code Monkey helps to bring that sense of accomplishment out in its students. They accomplish this through game-based learning where students learn to code in a gamified environment. Students will learn to program a cartoon monkey character, and their progress is tracked and supplemented with feedback and constructive critique. This process helps the student cultivate intrinsic motivation which is a key characteristic of learning to experience satisfying outcomes from a learning process due to the student’s own behaviors and motivation rather than a reward / punishment system. By eliminating the performance management aspect and putting the keys tot heir own success in the students’ hands Code Monkey satisfies the parameters of the fourth principal of learning engagement.

Goals – 2nd principal of learning engagement

Students who use Code Monkey are expected to develop new skills that could prove vital to their future aspirations. The book Trends and Issues in Instructional Design and Technology (Reiser, R., 2018) talks about the second principal of learning engagement which is that motivation is prompted when the lesson to be learned proves vital to one’s goals. Goals can be both emotional and professional in nature. Emotional goals tend to include a need to feel good about oneself and have opportunities to engage in friendly interactions, and a need for your work to feel relevant. By creating a curriculum that helps kids relate future professional goals with something they enjoy such as gaming, Code Monkey creates relevance for future goals by tying them in with emotional goals. As children relate their enjoyment of gaming with future goals of professional aspirations, Code Monkey creates an opportunity for children to “learn by doing” as children see the value to engage with the lessons. This is how the learn by doing engagement strategy relates to the second principal of learning engagement.

Citations:

Coding for kids: Game-based programming. Code Monkey. (n.d.). Retrieved April 22, 2022, from www.codemonkey.com

Metzger, K., & Langley, D. (2020, July). The Room Itself is Not Enough: Student Engagement in Active Learning Classrooms. EBSCOHOST. Retrieved April 22, 2022, from https://web-p-ebscohost-com.oclc.fullsail.edu/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?vid=18&sid=fda20cb6-eefe-44f3-aec7-3c32b5652cc6%40redis

Reiser, R. (2018). Chapter 9: Motivation, Volition, and Performance. In J. Dempsey (Ed.), Trends and Issues in Instructional Design and Technology (4th ed.) (pp. 80–81). story, Pearson.