Py-Buddy: An Interactive Programming Tutorial for Young Children

Nowadays, programming has become a necessary skill to have because programming fuels computers which have become part of our daily life. There are many books and tutorials that teach various programming languages. However, learning programming for the first time is not easy for many people, particularly young children. This project introduces a highly interactive multimedia tutorial called Py-Buddy that teaches basics of programming to young children using Python programming language. Research study suggests that playful and interactive learning environments increase the effectiveness of learning for both adults and children. Py-Buddy uses a friendly and interactive graphical user interface and attractive animations to introduces basics concepts of programming in an easily understandable manner. This makes learning of a programming language interesting and enjoyable. After developing this interactive tutorial, experiments were conducted to evaluate the efficiency of learning outcomes that young children could gain from the tutorial, compared to the traditional way of learning. The result shows that Py-Buddy is highly effective for young children to learn basics of programming for the first time