This year we’ve delivered on our promise to innovate, drive engagement and build an inclusive environment where anyone can see themselves as the hero.
The Impact of DEI
Diversity, equity, and inclusion can have a real impact on learning outcomes. With Ozaria: Your Journey Begins we’ve made many enhancements to improve the student experience.
- Diversity: This year, we added 4 new hero options to our game, with the aim to broaden representation and ensure each student can play as they wish. We are continually working to expand our hero options to include more diverse and non-binary body types. When students see themselves in our heroes, they’re more excited and engaged, which leads to greater learning and growth.
- Equity: The addition of more hints, UI improvements, art options, and code bank entries ensures that all students feel supported in their coding journey. Furthermore, to make certain that all students can learn Computer Science regardless of reading ability, we’ve added voice-overs for all of the dialogue that takes place in Ozaria’s Hour of Code. We continually strive to remove obstacles for our young learners.
- Inclusion: After consulting various students and teachers, we have revised our storyline to make the hero’s journey more inclusive, focusing on relationships that are approachable for everyone. In addition, our color-coded text system was designed to help those with color blindness. We hope these features help kids feel that all are welcome as they explore Computer Science.
Ozaria: Your Journey Begins: Enter the world of Ozaria where you become a hero in an epic adventure. You must use the power of coding to defeat a darkness that has taken over the world! Along the way, you’ll meet interesting characters and travel to different lands, practicing coding concepts like sequences, loops, debugging, and decomposition. In the end, you’ll design a playable game that you can share with your friends!
To learn more about how CodeCombat is prioritizing DEI check out our Guide to DEI. And for more information on Ozaria visit Ozaria.com.
Engage with Creative Competition
Keeping students focused and excited to learn true typed coding is not always easy. For years, our game-based learning platforms have made learning fun through play. Now, with our latest CodeCombat Hour of Code activity Road to the AI League, we’ve taken the next step in gaming evolution: esports.
Many kids today either want to be a gamer or create games, and there is no better way to fuel these passions than with CodeCombat. The CodeCombat AI League is an educational esports competition unlike any other. It’s uniquely and simultaneously a competitive coding event, AI simulator and game engine for learning real code all rolled into an engaging experience for kids. Our esports program offers an opportunity to further engage students through a fun and exciting competition. The CodeCombat AI League allows students to be creative, showcase their understanding of the concepts in a new environment and practice problem solving strategies as they go head to head in battle against coders from around the globe!
In this Hour of Code activity you start in the Dungeons of Kithgard, beating baddies and learning the core principles of programming:
- Dungeons of Kithgard (learn basic movement)
- Gems in the Deep (practice basic movement)
- Shadow Guard (master basic movement)
- True Names (learn string arguments)
- Favorable Odds (practice string arguments)
- Fire Dancing (learn while loops)
- Haunted Kithmaze (practice while loops)
- Descending Further (master while loops)
Covering movement, arguments, and loops, students will develop the necessary foundation for competing in our unique and innovative esport. With these basic skills, students can take on other competitors in the Giant’s Gate arena. Choose to start out easy against the simple CPU AI or challenge one of the real competitors on the arena leaderboard. The level overview will provide the details on how to compete and what the objectives are. The blue tutorial messages and hints box will help students through the experience. Students will even be supplied with some starter code to get going and compete right away.
Feeling confident in your coding abilities? The Colossus Clash finals arena will allow students to compete against the best for a chance to win some great prizes.
Road to the AI League: competitive coding has never been so epic! No coding experience, no problem. Enter the dungeon where you will level up your programming powers by learning the coding strategies and tactics you will need to compete. Once you've made it through the dungeon you'll be ready to take on coders from around the world in the CodeCombat AI League esports arena!
To learn more about the CodeCombat AI League and options for customizing a tournament for your school or district checkout the following resources.
AI League Video Overview | AI League Flyer | AI League Getting Started Guide | AI League Video Tutorial | AI League Season 2 Recap Video
Hour of Code 2021 Share and Win!
We are excited to start seeing what you and your students can accomplish.
Be Sure to celebrate Hour of Code on social media and you could win a FREE pilot program! Take pictures and share your success stories using the hashtags #CodeCombat and #Ozaria so the world can see the creativity of your students! We will pick a few winners to receive even more great content.
Once you’ve posted, use the form https://bit.ly/ShareAndWin2021 to submit your posts.
Other official HoC Activities available from CodeCombat:
CodeCombat: Build Your Own Game! | CodeCombat: Teacher -Led Activities | CodeCombat: Code, Play, Create | CodeCombat: Build an Arcade Game!