SBIR Phase II: A Cloud-Based Tutoring Software For Teaching Coding to K-12 Students through Integration with Popular Video Games

这个第二阶段的项目建议开发一种计算机科学（CS）教育软件，它有可能激励数百万美国K-12学生学习计算机编程。这个软件将利用一个流行的视频游戏的激励力量，通过教他们重新编程视频游戏本身来教学生CS。目前，美国攻读计算机科学专业的学生严重短缺。美国劳工统计局（Bureau of Labor Statistics）预测，到2022年，美国将有超过100万个计算机职位空缺。通过利用流行视频游戏的力量，这个第二阶段项目中提出的技术有可能在未来5年内让数百万K-12学生接触编码。在这个第二阶段项目中开发的底层技术的商业影响并不局限于目前超过1亿的用户，他们正在玩当前教育软件集成的流行视频游戏。因为底层技术可以转移到任何可修改的（如可重新编程的）电子游戏中，所以该技术有可能用于快速发展的电子游戏行业中其他流行游戏的CS教学。这个第二阶段的项目建议继续开发一个软件产品，它是一个基于网络的编码环境，供新手程序员使用。这个软件在几个方面超越了这个领域的最先进的技术（例如，scratch.mit.edu）：1)它使用自动化辅导技术为新手定制教育体验，2)它便于编写程序，在3D环境中操纵对象和地形，3)它允许新手用户重新编程流行的视频游戏，4)它有一个浏览器内，基于webgl的3D运行时环境，5)它既支持新手友好的视觉编程语言（block），也支持基于文本的语言（JavaScript）， 6)它利用游戏化技术，如徽章，积分，7)支持多用户协作编码。这个第二阶段项目的目标集中在改善学生体验，以增加客户保留率和获得率，并完成一种可销售产品的开发，该产品将在未来5年内教授500万K-12学生。该项目的第一个目标是开发和扩展浏览器嵌入式游戏引擎。第二个目标侧重于改进系统，使学生与适当的教育内容相匹配，并激励学生继续学习。最后，第三个目标涉及实施激励学生创造和与社区分享的新系统。

This Phase II project proposes to develop a computer science (CS) educational software that has the potential to inspire millions of U.S. K-12 students to learn computer programming. This software will leverage the motivational power of a popular video game, to teach CS to students by teaching them to reprogram the video game itself. The United States currently has a severe deficit of students pursuing CS. The Bureau of Labor Statistics predicts that over 1 million computing job openings will go unfilled by U.S. workers by 2022. By leveraging the power of a popular video game, the technology proposed in this Phase II project has the potential to expose millions of K-12 students to coding in the next 5 years. The commercial impact of the underlying technology developed in this Phase II project does not stop at the over 100 million users who currently play the popular video game with which the current educational software integrates. Because the underlying technology is transferable to any moddable (i.e. reprogrammable) video game, the technology has the potential to be used to teach CS with other popular titles from the rapidly growing video game industry.This Phase II project proposes to continue the development of a software product that is a web-based coding environment for novice programmers. This software goes beyond the state-of-the-art technologies in this space (i.e., scratch.mit.edu) in several ways: 1) It uses automated tutoring techniques to customize the educational experiences for novices, 2) it facilitates writing programs that manipulate objects and terrain in a 3D environment, 3) it allows the novice user to reprogram a popular video game, 4) it has an in-browser, WebGL-based 3D runtime environment, 5) it supports both a novice-friendly visual programming language (Blockly) as well as a text-based language (JavaScript), 6) it leverages gamification techniques such as badges, points, and unlockable items, and 7) it supports multi-user, collaborative coding. The objectives of this Phase II project concentrate on improving student experiences in order to increase customer retention and acquisition and to finish the development of a marketable product that will teach 5 million K-12 students in the next 5 years. The first objective of this project involves developing and extending the browser-embedded game engine. The second objective focuses on improving systems that match students with appropriate educational content and motivate students to continue learning. Finally, the third objective involves implementing new systems that incentivize students to create and share with the community.