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

该项目的第二阶段旨在开发一种计算机科学（CS）教育软件，该软件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，通过教学生重新编程视频游戏本身来教CS。 美国目前有一个严重的赤字学生追求CS。 美国劳工统计局预测，到2022年，美国将有超过100万个计算机工作岗位空缺。 通过利用流行视频游戏的力量，该项目第二阶段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。 第二阶段项目中开发的基础技术的商业影响并不局限于目前正在玩流行视频游戏的1亿多用户，目前的教育软件与之集成。 由于基础技术可转移到任何可修改（即可重新编程）的视频游戏，该技术有可能被用来教CS与其他流行的标题从快速增长的视频游戏industry.This第二阶段项目建议继续开发的软件产品，是一个基于Web的编程环境的新手程序员。 该软件超越了该领域的最先进技术（即，scratch.mit.edu）以多种方式：1）它使用自动辅导技术为新手定制教育体验，2）它有助于编写在3D环境中操纵对象和地形的程序，3）它允许新手用户重新编程流行的视频游戏，4）它具有浏览器内，基于WebGL的3D运行时环境，5）它支持新手友好的可视化编程语言（Blockly）以及基于文本的语言（JavaScript），6）它利用游戏化技术，如徽章，积分和解锁项目，以及7）它支持多用户，协作编码。 第二阶段项目的目标集中在改善学生体验，以增加客户保留和获取，并完成一个可销售的产品，将教500万K-12学生在未来5年的开发。 这个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为学生提供适当教育内容并激励学生继续学习的制度。 最后，第三个目标是实施新的制度，激励学生创造和与社区分享。

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.