Towards s'more connected coding camps

TL;DR

This paper presents a vision and platform for connecting coding camps to broader educational and professional contexts to enhance learning opportunities and integration.

Contribution

It introduces the Oscar initiative and sketches a supporting platform to link coding camps with educational and professional environments.

Findings

Proposes a platform for connected coding camps

Highlights the benefits of integrating camps with broader contexts

Outlines features for supporting connected learning environments

Abstract

Coding camps bring together individuals from diverse backgrounds to tackle given challenges within a limited timeframe. Such camps create a rich learning environment for various skills, some of which are directly associated with the camp, and some of which are a result of working as a team during the camp. Unfortunately, coding camps often remain isolated from the broader educational curriculum or other bigger context, which downplays the opportunities they can offer to students. In this paper, we present the vision of the European initiative Oscar, which aims at connecting coding camps to the educational and professional context faced by the learners. In addition, we sketch a supporting platform and its features for connected coding camps.