Introducing Code Club World: a new way for young people to learn to code at home

Today we are introducing you to Code Club World — a free online platform where young people aged 9 to 13 can learn to make stuff with code.

Images from Code Club World, a free online platform for children who want to learn to code

In Code Club World, young people can:

  • Start out by creating their personal robot avatar
  • Make music, design a t-shirt, and teach their robot avatar to dance!
  • Learn to code on islands with structured activities
  • Discover block-based and text-based coding in Scratch and Python
  • Earn badges for their progress 
  • Share their coding creations with family, friends, and the Code Club World community

Learning to code at home with Code Club World: meaningful, fun, flexible

When we spoke to parents and children about learning at home during the pandemic, it became clear to us that they were looking for educational tools that the children can enjoy and master independently, and that are as fun and social as the computer games and other apps the children love.

A girl has fun learning to code at home, sitting with a laptop on a sofa, with a dog sleeping next to her and her father writing code too.
Code Club World is educational, and as fun as the games and apps young people love.

What’s more, a free tool for learning to code at home is particularly important for young people who are unable to attend coding clubs in person. We believe every child should have access to a high-quality coding and digital making education. And with this in mind, we set out to create Code Club World, an online environment as rich and engaging as a face-to-face extracurricular learning experience, where all young people can learn to code.

The Code Club World activities are mapped to our research-informed Digital Making Framework — a coding and digital making curriculum for non-formal settings. That means when children are in the Code Club World environment, they are learning to code and use digital making to independently create their ideas and address challenges that matter to them.

Islands in the Code Club World online platform for children who want to learn to code for free.
Welcome to Code Club World — so many islands to explore!

By providing a structured pathway through the coding activities, a reward system of badges to engage and motivate learners, and a broad range of projects covering different topics, Code Club World supports learners at every stage, while making the activities meaningful, fun, and flexible.

A girl has fun learning to code at home on a tablet sitting on a sofa.
Code Club World’s home island works as well on mobile phones and tablets as on computers.

We’ve also designed Code Club World to be mobile-friendly, so if a young person uses a phone or tablet to visit the platform, they can still code cool things they will be proud of.

Created with the community

Since we started developing Code Club World, we have been working with a community of more than 1000 parents, educators, and children who are giving us valuable input to shape the direction of the platform. We’ve had some fantastic feedback from them:

“I’ve not coded before, but found this really fun! … I LOVED making the dance. It was so much fun and made me laugh!”

Learner, aged 11

“I love the concept of having islands to explore in making the journey through learning coding, it is fabulous and eye-catching.”

Parent

The platform is still in beta status — this means we’d love you to share it with young people in your family, school, or community so they can give their feedback and help make Code Club World even better.

Together, we will ensure every child has an equal opportunity to learn to code and make things that change their world.

7 comments

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I can’t get onto codeworldclub. The url doesn’t seem to work

Any idea why.?

Janina Ander

Hi there! We are currently looking into this. Try clearing your web browser’s cache if you haven’t already. That may solve the issue for you.

Janina Ander

It should work for everyone again now with no problem :)

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Do these have instructions, or am I expected to just drag scratch pieces randomly until I’m done. I don’t see any tutorials, just platform. Is that by design?

I also tried to find existing code clubs, but was unable to find any, even when I put in large cities in USA. Do you have a list of code clubs I can consult to find them?

Janina Ander

The instructions are at the top above the coding interface :)

Most Code Clubs aren’t public, as teachers run them in schools for the school’s students only. CoderDojos on the other hand are hosted by volunteers in community venues, and many are open to public — have a look on the CoderDojo website for clubs near you: https://coderdojo.com/

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Hi!
This is a phenomenal idea. Are you open to translate it to other languages? I’ll be more than happy to help with Spanish.

Janina Ander

Hi Jose! Thank you for this kind offer :)

We are looking into translating Code Club World, yes. You could sign up as a volunteer translator with us to be among the first to hear about progress in this direction: https://www.raspberrypi.org/translate/

A wonderful community of volunteer translators works with us to translate educational materials, including the step-by-step coding projects for young people on our website (https://projects.raspberrypi.org/). These projects are becoming available through Code Club World as well. So if you sign up, you can already start helping us to bring coding to young Spanish-speaking people!

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