Apprenticeship-based programming education for everyone!

In the presentation we discuss how massive open online courses (MOOCs) can be used to improve student programming related skill-sets before they start their studies at a University. Our introduction to programming course is offered for free to the Finnish high school students as well as to the community -- that is, anyone can start learning programming. Best-performing high-school students are invited to an interview with a possibility for attaining admission to the University of Helsinki with certain restrictions.

Our introduction to programming course follows the Extreme Apprenticeship (XA) method that acknowledges learning by doing as the most efficient means for learning, follows best programming practices, and emphasizes continuous feedback during the whole learning phase. Previous application of XA has resulted in a significant decrease in dropout rates in comparison to traditionally conducted course instances.