Kodockly: Using a Tangible Robotic Kit for Teaching Programming

Programming has recently become one of the most needed skills. This increased the need and the demand of teaching children programming and computational thinking at early age. This study aims to investigate how effectively young children can master the foundations of programming based on tangible robotic user interface. This was accomplished by designing and implementing, Kodockly, an educational robotic kit for young children aged from 6 to 11. Children can learn three main programming concepts (Sequential, Conditions, and Loops) while playing with the kits. A sample of N=38 children participated in this research. Kodockly was tested using between-group experimental design to test the effectiveness of the robotic kits to teach children programming concepts against the normal teaching methods. The results showed a significant difference between the two groups with a p-value<0.05 for the learning gain, the engagement level and the system usability. Accordingly, using Kodockly as an educational robot is considered to be an effective method to teach young children basics of programming. Kodockly was built for young individuals to attract them towards Engineering Education.

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