The history of Pathway2Code traces back to a question on an exam. That question asked the students to create a function that accepted 4 parameters and returned the smallest value. The goal of the question was to check the syntax involved in passing parameters and returning function results. However, the students were easily able to provide the correct syntax but not the logic to determine the small est number. This logic was not the focus of the problem!!

This experience underscored the need to focus on logic skill versus the syntax of a programming language. Often coding courses cover this syntax which can be boring and tedious. Also, languages such as Python have no built-in graphic commands for students to produce interesting outputs in the first exercises.

Pathway2Code overcomes the typical barriers within programming courses that often leads to a 50% failure rate. The platform focuses on logic skills such as identifying repetition, recognizing patterns and abstracting data into variables, among other concepts.

The initial use of Pathway2Code has been in problem solving courses at the college level. These courses are designed to introduce coding concepts along with starting the required logic foundations. The platform has been used in non-coding lectures as well both at the high school and college level.