Exploring Projects in a Python Programming MOOC for Young Learners

The computer programming MOOC “From Technology Consumer to Creator”, which is under consideration in this article, was created in 2020 with the aim of expanding the possibility of learning programming in Estonian schools. It is intended for young people who have no prior programming experience. The project-based learning phase is included at the end of the course to recall the learned knowledge and give an opportunity to gain new skills during this phase. The aim of this paper is to provide an overview of the strengths and weaknesses of the projects carried out during the MOOC held in the spring of 2020. 469 students participated in this MOOC, and their 197 project solutions were reviewed. The results show that the students preferred to do the projects individually, however, their programs had on average the same number of rows as the programs done in teams. Although the code written was not completely without errors and had some redundancies and repetitions, the students acquired new knowledge and gained new experience from doing the project.