CodeAll
CodeAll solves the problem of difficult access to coding classes under the supervision of a teacher who tracks the student's progress and helps to solve programming tasks. Due to distance learning during the pandemic, young people experienced a lack of help in the learning process and were left on their own. Also, often the availability of one computer for several children in a family is an obstacle to learning at the same time.
When it comes to learning the programming itself, it is usually possible mainly thanks to expensive courses or on platforms that already require some advancement and knowledge in programming languages. For youth and even adult people without programming experience, it is difficult to take the first steps there and start learning without experience.
The scale of this phenomenon is global, it concerns everyone who starts their adventure with programming. Programming skills are promoted practically all over the world among the youngest students. This is due to the digitization of most areas of our lives (work, education, medicine, intelligent environments such as smart home, autonomous cars and applications on our phones for practically everything). Digital literacy is a necessity to function freely in today's world.
CodeAll is a mobile application to learn coding with a Chatbot that acts as a virtual teacher who guides the user step by step through the lessons, supervising user's progress and helping with programming issues. Currently, the application consists of over 90 lessons, and each lesson takes about 15-20 minutes for a beginner student. The application optionally works with IoT sensors, thanks to which the student creates an intelligent environment around themselves (similar to smart home solutions such as switching on the light on clap, door opening sensor, parking sensor). But as mentioned - sensors are optional, application is a stand-alone core solution.
The student can start the lesson at any time, at their own pace and under the supervision of a virtual teacher. CodeAll is a pocket-sized and accessible tutor for young people eager to learn programming.
CodeAll is a globally universal solution thanks to the possibility of learning in several languages with the possibility of translation into other languages (currently Polish, English, Ukrainian) and because it teaches the same technology all over the world - programming languages are independent of the natural language in the region).
The IT industry is struggling with a very large shortage of programmers in practically every region (http://bityl.pl/Jwa6Q), and this fact and the prospects for attractive employment make programming skills one of the most desirable on the labor market.
The Covid-19 pandemic caused many areas of life to move into the digital world (online work and education or even medical consultations with GP doctors), creating a demand for specialists in the IT industry. The environment of new technologies and applications is very attractive for young people who are eager to follow in this direction. With CodeAll, they can start learning on their own, being sure that they are going through its stages correctly thanks to a virtual teacher.
In this case, the academic and scientific background of the team made it possible to implement the CodeAll idea. The concept of creating an easy tool for learning programming was born not only from the authors' own experience, who also took their first steps in programming and are well aware of the hardships of this path, especially at the beginning, but is also the result of the meeting of the CodeAll CEO with his younger cousin who just wanted to know how to start learning programming and this experience made him realize that this learning process is not clear and easy to get along with. CodeAll was piloted in a Ukrainian school in Kiev, thanks to which work is constantly underway to adapt it to the needs and capabilities of students.
- Enable personalized learning and individualized instruction for learners who are most at risk for disengagement and school drop-out
- Pilot
To distribute CodeAll in different regions, it will be necessary to translate the application menu and chatbot language into another - local one. Solve's help: translation.
Possible barriers to consider are the accessibility of young people to mobile devices and the Internet. Solve's help: in the case of implementing CodeAll to a local school, providing the facility with internet or mobile devices.
- Public Relations (e.g. branding/marketing strategy, social and global media)
What distinguishes CodeAll from other programming learning solutions of this type are several aspects:
- AI-driven chatbot, which is a virtual teacher and guides the user through the stages and, if necessary, corrects errors, thanks to which the user is not on his own
- CodeAll does not focus on a specific technology - it teaches the concept of programming, shows what coding is all about and shows common assumptions for many programming languages (functions, variables, loops). Thanks to this, it is suitable for people with no experience who are just getting acquainted with this matter.
- CodeAll makes learning more attractive by making it interactive thanks to optional IoT (Internet of Things) sensors. They can be programmed independently by the user of the intelligent environment and to immediately observe the effects of learning.
Until now, the possibility of learning coding was based on solutions intended for young children - blocks, code simplification, toy solutions or, on the contrary, solutions for people who have an initial understanding of programming, determined for a specific programming language (e.g. platforms with tutorials, programming bootcamps) ). CodeAll is a well-balanced intermediate tool - attractive in terms of the way of learning (especially with the use of sensors) and not as overwhelming as advanced solutions for experienced learners.
We want to promote CodeAll as an accessible and effective tool for learning coding among children and teenagers as well as people starting learning in this area. We particularly care about reaching educational institutions that conduct classes related to learning to code and acquiring knowledge about new technologies. Public and private institutions are the appropriate addressees of CodeAll.
Our ambition is also to adapt the application (already equipped with a virtual teacher) to the possibility of teaching other subjects.
The use of CodeAll by a growing number of users and its presence in as many educational institutions as possible is the most measurable and satisfactory indicator of progress.
In terms of technical development, we see progress as developing the learning material with new lessons or even subjects (not just programming) in the near future.
The solution is easily accessible (free application can be downloaded worldwide) and an accessible form of learning (easy and attractive lessons). Most regions have a large deficit of qualified programming teachers, and for this reason coding classes are often not in the school curriculum. CodeAll solves this problem by offering a "pocket teacher" in the form of an intelligent chatbot in the application. This way, learning to program can take place practically anywhere, even where children and teenagers do not have access to teaching staff qualified in programming or to schools with such classes. This will allow youth to acquire one of the most desirable skills in the awaiting labor market.
The solution - CodeAll - is based on:
Mobile application (to be available in the AppStore and Google Play)
In the app:
Code editor, lessons use the Python programming language as the basis for introducing the coding concept
Chatbot - virtual teacher - AI, Natural Language Processing (NLP)
Optional sensors used in order to create an intelligent environment - IoT (Internet of Things), Bluetooth, Wi-Fi
- A new application of an existing technology
- Artificial Intelligence / Machine Learning
- Internet of Things
- Software and Mobile Applications
- 4. Quality Education
- For-profit, including B-Corp or similar models
Our team is diverse in terms of gender, age, location (Poland, Ireland), and soon also in terms of nationality, as we will welcome a developer from Thailand on board.
The revenue stream in CodeAll will come from selling hardware sensors and an optional subscription in the mobile app to access more lessons.
Application with the chatbot will be free but we will have also subscription packages that will give:
- additional lessons
- the possibility to talk to the real person, real teacher in our case (model already verified by Wysa - another chatbot for coping with stress and anxiety with over 2 000 000 user base)
Different kits will be offered with different set of sensors, such as smart home kit (speaker, door/window opening sensor, presence of people sensor, microphone, smart socket and camera) or researcher kit (temperature sensor, humidity sensor, light sensor, vibrations sensor, distance sensor).
The minimum set of sensors will cost €49. The most expensive kit will cost $299. It is possible to buy any sensors the user wants and the list of sensors will grow over time.
- Individual consumers or stakeholders (B2C)
We intend to launch a crowdfunding campaign on Kickstarter this year but ultimately, revenue is to be generated from the sale of the product (sensors) and services (additional lessons).
So far, we have raised over $ 460,000 from the National Center for Research and Development and EUR 50,000 from the European Commission. We also received Go To Brand funding from the Polish Agency for Enterprise Development, thanks to which we were able to promote CodeAll at the Dubai fair (July 2021, approx. $ 70,000).