Homeschool Programming, Inc. Getting Started

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1 Getting Started with your KidCoder or TeenCoder Online Courses Updated October, 2015 Thank you for considering or purchasing a KidCoder or TeenCoder online course! This document describes the major components in an online course, how to enroll, and how to access the course material. Please read it completely in order to have the best possible experience with your course. If you have any questions not answered in this document, please read our online FAQ at If this document and the FAQ don t help, we are happy to respond to your questions by to coursehelp@homeschoolprogramming.com or office phone Table of Contents Minimum System Requirements... 2 Student and Teacher Accounts... 2 Login Page... 3 Adding Time, Courses, and Siblings... 3 Account Home Page... 4 System and Course Tutorials... 5 Online Help, Getting Help... 5 Course Home Page... 6 Chapter Page... 7 Lesson Video... 8 Lesson Text... 9 Lesson Quizzes Teacher Guide Activities Activity Instructions Activity Files Activity Solutions and Grading Subject Index... 16

2 Minimum System Requirements To access the online course material, you must have a high-speed Internet connection. We do not recommend our online courses for those with very limited connectivity or dial-up. You will log in and view all course material through a standard web browser such as Explorer, Chrome, Safari, Firefox, Edge, or a mobile browser on a tablet. In order to complete the hands-on programming projects, you must have a personal computer or laptop running the Windows or Mac operating systems (requirements vary by course). For more details, please see: Student and Teacher Accounts Each course purchase will come with student and teacher licenses in the form of coupon codes. These codes will be ed to you, so you must provide a valid address at purchase. You will redeem these coupon codes at our online website to create your own student and teacher accounts. Select the Self-Registration option on the top menu bar and choose Redeem a Course Code. A video tutorial of the process is also available. Please carefully write down your chosen username and password. After this one-time selfregistration, use your username and password to log in as a student or teacher. Student accounts have access to all student material. Teacher accounts have access to both student and teacher material (including activity solutions, quiz and test answer keys, and grading features).

3 Login Page Our online courses for homeschool and individual students are hosted on a dedicated server. You will receive a Login URL with your course coupon codes. In most cases, that login URL will be: You will see CompuScholar, Inc. in many places throughout our online courses. Both CompuScholar, Inc. and Homeschool Programming, Inc. are owned and operated by the same staff! They are simply portals that provide our KidCoder and TeenCoder courses in different formats. Once you redeem your course coupon codes and have created your username and password, simply enter those details in the login box located near the bottom-right corner of the login page. Adding Time, Courses, and Siblings Your initial student and teacher accounts are valid for a 1 full calendar year from the time of purchase. If you wish to extend an account with more time, you can do so through the course interface for a nominal fee. You can purchase an additional course and add it to an existing account. Simply ensure you are already logged in with your existing account before redeeming additional coupon codes. One teacher account can manage multiple student accounts and multiple courses. If you would like to add a sibling account to an existing family, you can do so thorough the course interface for a nominal fee.

4 Account Home Page Once logged in, your Home Page will display the courses that are assigned to your account. Simply click on the desired course (e.g. KidCoder: Web Design ) to access that course material.

5 System and Course Tutorials Each Teacher Menu and Student Menu will contain a link to Tutorials, which are video modules that show students and teachers how to use the online system. Please carefully review each of these video tutorials to learn how to use each part of the online course interface! The Teacher Menu also contains a link to Professional Development modules. In this area you can find a teacherlevel explanation of features, quizzes, grading, etc. You will also find course-by-course video tutorials that walk you through each chapter and demonstrate the hands-on programming projects. Teachers are highly encouraged to spend some time reviewing these professional development modules to help answer many common questions! Online Help, Getting Help At the top of every course page is a standard toolbar with a Help selection. Within the Help area will be one or more links to useful documents, including the minimum hardware and software requirements. If you would like to request additional help on any course topic, please use the standard Getting Help form on our website:

6 Course Home Page From a course home page, you have access to the individual chapters in the main content area. Click on a chapter heading to access the lessons, activities, quizzes, and tests for that chapter.

7 Chapter Page Each chapter generally has 3 or more lessons arranged top-to-bottom. Each lesson will have a Lesson Video, Lesson Text, and Lesson Quiz buttons visible the student. Teachers will also have Teacher Guide and Quiz Answer Key buttons.

8 Lesson Video Lesson videos should play in any HTML5-compliant web browser (you do not need Adobe Flash). When you click on the Lesson Video button, a pop-up or tab window will contain the streaming video. The video is animated and narrated, and can be controlled with the slider bar and buttons at the bottom of the screen. Simply close the window or tab when finished. Videos are intended to introduce and re-enforce the main lesson concepts, and may viewed in any order with respect to the lesson text.

9 Lesson Text The Lesson Text button will launch the reading material for the lesson in HTML format. The lesson text contains the full detailed explanations and examples for each concept. Simply scroll down to read the full text and close the pop-up window or tab when finished.

10 Lesson Quizzes Lesson quizzes are generally 5-question multiple choice, true/false, or other format designed to assess the student s understanding of the just-completed lesson. After clicking on Lesson Quiz you will be taken to a screen where you can launch the quiz with a button similar to the one shown to the right. You will then be presented with the quiz questions: You can scroll down to the bottom and click the Next button to see a summary of answers and submit for grading. When all questions have been answered, click on Submit all and finish to complete the quiz.

11 Teacher Guide The Teacher Guide button is visible only to teachers, and leads to a HTML page containing lesson objectives and guidance on conducting the lesson.

12 Activities Each chapter contains one or more Activities that provide students with hands-on opportunities to exercise their newly learned skills by completing a project. The Activity blocks have an Activity Instructions and Submit Activity button for the students and an Activity Solution Guide for the teacher. Some activities also have an Activity Files button which contains material the student should download in order to get started. At the end of every chapter you will also have a Chapter Test, similar in format to the lesson quizzes. The teacher is provided with a Test Answer Key, which again has the same PDF question and answer-key format as the quizzes.

13 Activity Instructions Activities form the heart of the student s hands-on learning experience. Students can access the activity HTML description by clicking on the Activities Instruction button.

14 Activity Files Some activities provide starter files for the student or solution files for the teacher. Most files are provided within ZIPs. Clicking on the Activity Files button will display a download pop-up, the details of which will vary depending on your operating system, web browser, and ZIP software. The student ZIP file contains starting material the student will use locally to complete an activity or project. The student should save the file locally and un-zip it to their working area on their computer in order to get started on the activity. The teachers solution ZIP files contain a fully coded example of how students can meet the activity requirements.

15 Activity Solutions and Grading When a project is complete, the student clicks on the Submit Activity button to let the teacher know it is ready for grading. The teacher can then log in through the course interface and assign a grade for the programming project. Grading rubrics are provided, so the teacher does not have to be a computer science expert! The teacher s Activity Solution Guide button will launch an HTML description of the activity solution, which contains fully coded answers for the activity.

16 Subject Index Students and teachers may us the Subject Index to instantly reach relevant chapters and lessons for specific key words and topics.