Freshi Learning Online offers many different courses that give students the tools they need to jump into the world of computer coding and animation in the digital age. I have exactly zero knowledge or foundation of anything in the world of computer coding, so I am of little help to my 11-year-old son who has a huge desire to learn how to code and create projects in the digital world. I was eager for the opportunity to review the Introduction to Coding class offered by Freshi Learning Online.

The Introduction to Coding class is broken down into short little video lessons that show step-by-step what the student should be doing and seeing on their own screen. The student will need to download their own software in order to complete the lessons. For this class, the software is free, but that is not necessarily the case with all of the classes. The class videos are about 2 to 10 minutes long and each lesson introduces a new concept of the coding world and builds on the previous lesson. There are four languages in the coding world: HTML, CSS, JavaScript, and Python. Since this is an introductory class, the goal is to briefly introduce these languages and what its purpose is in designing a webpage. After each video module, there is often a quiz or additional information or assets about the lesson to make sure that the student is understanding the concept. The quizzes are optional and are not mandatory in order to move on to the next lesson, but they are helpful to the parent to ensure that learning is happening.

For the first couple of lessons, I sat with my son to make sure that he understood how the class worked and how to navigate it. Once he had a handle on it, I let him do the class on his own. He loved that he could work on the class when it was convenient for him and at his own pace. He told me that he understands coding much more from this class than he did by reading other books and short videos about coding and he understood the lessons that were presented. He would toggle the windows and have the software up on one window and the class in another so he could go back and forth between the two. I was very satisfied with the presentation of the materials and the ease of the class. I think even my younger students can use this class and grasp the basics of coding.

Freshi Learning Online offers many other classes including video game programing, stop motion animation, digital filmmaking, 3D animation, digital comic book creation, and more. We had the opportunity to explore some of the other classes and were equally impressed at the way this company puts these classes together. They are professional, quality videos that break down the topic to the beginner level in ways that they can understand. As someone who has zero experience in this area, I feel that even I could take these video courses and understand the digital world better as a result. Overall, I would definitely recommend the Introduction to Coding class if you have students who are interested in coding.

-Product review by Audrey Tolle, The Old Schoolhouse® Magazine, LLC, May, 2018