Every student can learn to code

As of June 2014, a total of 37 million students have now tried an Hour of Code. As a high-impact organization, we are pleased to report that the initial cost per student during Hour of Code of $.06 has since dropped to $.03 with more students participating.

Since December, Code.org has added additional tutorials that go beyond the Hour of Code:

K-8 Intro to Computer Science. A 20-hour web-based course currently translated into 34 languages. The video features Mark Zuckerberg and Bill Gates as “video lecturers” and Angry Birds and Plants vs. Zombies artwork to make the tutorials feel like a game. This curriculum represents a new, inclusive approach to CS blending online, self-guided activities that play like popular games with social, “unplugged” lessons that require no computer at all. Covering concepts such as algorithms, computational thinking, and relay programming, 99% of surveyed teachers recommend the course. Over 1 million students and 20,000 teachers are currently enrolled.

Flappy Code. Taking advantage of the buzz around Flappy Bird, a simple online game with an enormous following, Code.org created this quick program where students learn how to write a game in 10 minutes.

THANK YOU for the support you have provided to Code.org to assist us in changing the perception of computer science education. Be sure to check out links below to recent media and we hope you will join us as we aim to reach 100 million students by the end of 2014. 

P.S. If you haven't already - be sure to follow us on Twitter and like us on Facebook! 

Links:

• CBS This Morning: Cracking the code
• New York Times: Reading, Writing, Arithmetic, and Lately, Coding

As a young non-profit with an ambitious mission, great connections and lots of support from partners and communities, we knew that the Hour of Code campaign would be a success. After all, we'd had thousands of teachers representing over 4 million students sign up to participate during Computer Science Education Week, December 9-15, 2013. We hoped that 5 million students would participate, maybe as many as 10 million (our pie-in-the-sky goal!).

We were incredibly pleased that the Hour of Code was an unqualified succees -- during CS Ed Week alone, 16 million students worldwide participated; approximately 75% were in the U.S. A welcome surprise was that 48% of the participants were GIRLS! In the ten weeks since the Hour of Code campaign was launched, we continue to add 1 million students a week (over 26 million at this point). 

To be clear: the Hour of Code wasn't designed to make all these students want to be computer scientists. It was just a taste that we hoped would begin to demystify computer science and engage students, parents and teachers in wanting more. And clamor for more they have! Over 11,000 teachers representing over 600,000 students have signed up to do the follow-on ~20 hour curriculum developed by Code.org and over 45,000 have already completed it. 

We're ecstatic about these outcomes and the progress we continue to make in developing our education programs for K-12 students.

Thank you for the support you have provided to Code.org to assist us in changing the perception of computer science education. We couldn't do it without you!

Links:

• Sign our petition to bring CS to more schools!