Pseudocode

Based on what we know about the certification exam, we have decided to create all code examples, interactives, and questions, using pseudocode. This allows us to get participants familiar with reading and understanding pseudocode, and allows us to be language agnostic, so as not to give the impression that participants (who may be familiar with other programming languages or have no experience at all) that they must know Java in order to pass the exam.

Resources

Use the following resources as a reference when trying to create pseudocode examples:

• 141 Test Preparation Guide: 141_computerSci.pdf
• Computer Science AP Pseudocode Exam Reference Sheet: Pseudocode Exam Reference Sheet.pdf
• TeachCS created psuedocode reference sheet: Our Reference Sheet

Content Patterns

• Start week with intro video and what you'll learn this week information
• Explicitly call out any instance where there is no exercise for the topic
• At end of subsection, explicitly tell users to go to the next section
• Have an end of week summary to include a synopsis for users revisiting the course

Unit Level Design

• Videos will have terms to know beneath them, to be in context
• Call out interactives such as carousels and interactives to let users know that they should click on them; put them in their own component with an H3 header
• Put H3 Header at the top of all practice Units

Quiz and Practice Design

All Assessment Items

• All questions should be multiple choice to mirror the actual certification test format. 
• Exercises/Practice and formative assessment questions do not count towards the grade.
• Quizzes/Summative assessments do count and 100% is required to pass.

Graded Quizzes

• 1 20-question graded assessment at the end of a week (all in one unit)
• Students should NOT be able to choose show answer, but SHOULD be able to try as many times as they like.
• Note: A consequence of not showing answers is that the user has to "reset" before trying to answer again.

Versioning and Content Workflow

Pre-Course Implementation (Not Live)

• Feel free to publish changes so that all users can see the updates when previewing the course

Live Course

• Do not immediately publish changes; wait until they are vetted

Video Production and Transcription

• Every video should include captions for accessibility
• Transcripts should be uploaded to YouTube along with the video so that students viewing outside of the course platform will have captioning
• In EdX, default view will be with timed captions (student can choose not to view)