Frequently Asked Questions

Coding is a huge industry and creates so many pathways.  By learning to code when you are young, you will be able to find what you like and want to pursue deeper.  It gives you time to explorer different areas coding has to offer.

Kids are so unique and are very capable.  We’ve had kids as young as 8 do wonderful and others it was best to wait until 12 or 13.  Our courses are written for the average 6th grader. However, the skills that will help learning to code be more enjoyable are typing and reading comprehension.

Many schools offer coding and would like to offer more, but because of resource limitations they can only teach very basic concepts.  Most of the time they aren’t able to prepare students for college level courses or careers.  We teach students coding using industry standard coding environments to give them a realistic experience. Our pathway is prepares students for college level courses and helps them create their own online coding portfolio to show to potential employers.

Online coding offers you a pathway to go at your own pace while having mentor help through chat support.  Classroom coding will also give the students a more traditional setting where they can talk with a in room teacher and work with other kids.

We have help with a lot of fundraisers.  Please contact us if you are interested.  We can help with summer camps, after school programs and many other areas.

We discourage this for a few reasons.  We really want the students to be able to unlock lessons and courses at their own pace.  Also it makes it easier for our live mentors to help our students quickly if they know where they are at in the lessons.  Coding is a personal experience and lots of customization happens throughout the lessons.  It’s been a better experience for the student when he has his own login.

Simply Coding is currently aligned with the Standards and Objectives in the state of Utah. Most states have similar computer science (CS) requirements.

Yes! We absolutely do.

Each student will have their own username and password to the Simply Coding website to access their coding courses. That means they will have 24/7 access to the program. Any limitations on accessing our website would have to be done from their home internet connection.

We offer live mentor chat support to all students during normal Simply Coding business hours, Mon – Fri 9 am – 6 pm Central Time. Students, or parents of students, can start a chat by going to our website and clicking on the chat icon in the bottom right corner.
After hours, the chat support icon will allow you to send an email for us to review during the next business day.

Simply Coding will never initiate a chat with any student. Students must request the chat.
All chats are saved, through our 3rd party license with PureChat, and can be retrieved for anyone at any time upon request.

Our chat support is secured through PureChat and can only be accessed by Simply Coding. Parents do not need to disclose any information about their child during registration and we are in compliance with COPPA.
Their user account is secured through amazon’s AWS data protection services that provide the encryption.

Yes! You may always renew your membership before or after expiration without losing your progress.

Simply Coding’s course pathway allows students to experience coding in the native environment. For this reason, you will need your own computer. All projects will be coded and saved to the student’s personal computer.
Each course has its own workspace (coding editor, images, and/or audio files) that will need to be downloaded to your computer by following the lesson’s instructions. Any software used is free to the student.

Because of the limitations with Chromebooks, only four of our courses are compatible.
Intro to Websites, JavaScript Game Design, Responsive Websites, and JavaScript Tower Defense.
For the other courses, you will need a PC or Mac computer.

Simply Coding’s course pathway uses coding editors that are not yet available on tablets or iPads.  You will need a PC or Mac for the best coding experience.

PC or Laptop Computer with Windows or Mac operating systems. (Any version of Mac or Windows will work)
2 GB RAM
10 GB Free Hard Drive Space
Internet Connection to access the lesson curriculum.
*Although the actual coding can be done without an internet connection.
The following are not compatible with Simply Coding Curriculum:
iPad, Tablet, Cell Phone, Chromebooks.

Throughout the coding pathway, Students will be creating and adding to their coding portfolio. This portfolio is uploaded to a service called GitHub. Eventually, all of their work will be saved there as well on your computer.

However, Simply Coding does have code from each lesson project that they can send to a Student if they have lost their work. Students would be able to use those files to pick up where they left off rather than starting over.

This coding pathway was designed with ages 11 – 18 in mind. All projects, videos, interactions, and activities were created to engage with that age group on education as well as an interest level.

We have had students younger and older succeed and enjoy coding but each course is created to be age-appropriate for youth and teens.

Because these lessons teach real coding, students who have taken a keyboarding course seem to have a better experience when writing code.

The first two courses in the pathway are designed to assume no coding experience and no prior coding knowledge is required.

We love seeing girls get into coding!  During the lessons, students have every opportunity to customize and make the coding project their own. For example, during the Into to Website courses, students will be shown and instructed to add code creating images, audio, video, color, and much more to their website.  Each student will be able to choose the content that their website will display.   This is true for each course that we teach. In addition, at the end of each course, students will have instructions for a final project allowing them to be creative and use what they’ve learned as they code their own website, game, or app.

Each student will have access to all completed lessons to review at their discretion.

Learning how to code a game teaches students all the great computer logic such as variables, conditions, loops, arrays, and objects in a very engaging flow. These concepts are the foundation of coding and do not change as they move into coding a database or some software program.

Games allow students to be creative quickly while learning these concepts. To become a good coder it takes planning and coding out your own ideas. By using games, students come up with ideas very quickly allowing them to go through the full creative coding experience.

The goal of this coding pathway is to give students a real coding experience so they can make better decisions about their future. This accomplishes many things.

First, lots of our youth want to become programmers or game developers without really knowing the kind of knowledge and dedication that takes. It’s an expensive test to have your first coding experience in college.

Other students may want to own a business or work in technology but not necessarily write code every day. By knowing how to code they’ll understand the working flow of technology projects and improve their communication and understanding with other technology fields.

Many students will find that they love to code and want to continue to pursue it. During this pathway, they will complete their own coding portfolio of their work. This will benefit them as they fill out applications for either college or internships. This pathway gives them enough coding experience to enter college-level courses confidently as they pursue their career.

Absolutely! We have formed many partnerships with online schools and/or academies that provide k-12 curriculum. We also have partnered with colleges to bring coding on campus for kids coding camps. Feel free to reach out to our director Seth at seth@simplycoding.org to discuss opportunities.