Community reviews for CodeCombat

I love the lesson plans, lesson slides and the usability of the platform. The learning games are intuitive and easy to use for beginner coders. I wish they had more lessons that align to the AP big ideas, especially "Lists".

Overall I really like this program, it allows for a great way to engage students, but also opens the door for students to work at their own pace on assignments. You have the ability to let students progress how they want, or you have the ability to gate progress for students and work through sections together. I don't have a lot of criticism for this program as it structures the learning in a way that slowly teaches students high level concepts, without ever being too much for them to handle.

This product works well for the age groups I used it for. It is not too childish, where they think they are above it, but it is still fun. The learning curve is good. The first few levels take some getting used to, but after that, most students were able to get the hang of it. My kids who already loved coding went on to finish the course on their own, outside of class time.

So far the students like the aspect that it is real coding vs. Blockly. We will dig deeper into the coding language next semester.

It is a fantastic tool to get kids interested in coding. I find its very effective when I make a competition out of it (e.g. first three students who complete the first dungeon win some kind of reward). I am easily able to move my licenses between kids so I can serve more students. My biggest criticism is the lack of flexibility in the educational version. They have removed the items and gems from this version of the game but I've found those things to be very motivating and exciting to the kids. I understand why they did this as they can be distracting from the core educational content but I believe that decision should be up to the teacher.

I think this is a great way to teach kids to code! What I like the most about it is that the kids are actually learning to WRITE code. I also love that it keeps the kids fully engaged. I have a hard time getting the kids to quit when class is over! The thing I think could be better is the overall look and feel. It seems cluttered, visually, and the help and hints, etc., are in several places.

Fun, interactive and low stress for middle-schoolers

The website is very engaging to the students and does a good job demonstrating how java script works. The direct connection to what the student is doing to what is happing in the activity may not be clear to the student so teachers will need to re-enforce the skills being applied. Students also need an email address to create an account which can be a problem for younger students or schools that do not allow student email addresses. Students will have to start over each time without logging in. The website needs to develop a teacher log in that allows for classroom creating and student management. There is also a forum but no website specific learning resources for teachers.

This site is amazing. Paired with keyboarding so the students can type faster, they are learning a lot. I like that they can choose the language they want to program in and that they advance at their own pace.

This is a great interactive coding website that made it more fun than just coding in general. However, I would say that it would not be applicable for elementary students. If so, you would have to have an after school class to host students who were definitely interested to take part of it. It reminds me a bit like World of Warcraft meets Harry Potter in the realm of Java Script coding.