Baldwin Wallace student organization CS+ have moved their tech camps to an online format to teach kids basic coding skills at home.

Brian Krupp, assistant director of computer science, has begun putting together videos that instruct on how to build simple platforms and games to make up for the loss of in-person tech camps that had to be cancelled to COVID-19.

“The [CS+] group thought ‘There’s kids that are staying at home with their parents, and they’re probably looking for something to do,’” said Krupp. “‘What if we started taking our tech camps and put them online, so that anybody can access them on YouTube?’”

According to Krupp, the response to the videos has been good so far and has drawn the praise of parents of past attendees.

“It’s really good to see that [the parents and kids] are receiving them and that they like them.” said Krupp.

He said especially with the shift from in-person to online learning it’s good to see that students are still “engaging with the programing” that CS+ provides.

The tech camp videos are split into multiple series. The first series covers building a solar system platform, the second is a gaming framework that “students can build into,” and the third, the first part of which was posted on April 15, focuses on building a game from scratch.

“It’s a really accessible way of learning programming,” says Krupp.

Krupp said these tech camps are aimed at giving kids from the region who might not otherwise get the chance an opportunity to learn computing skills.

“[The goal of our programs] is really to show students ‘Hey, you can do this,’ and to build that confidence,” said Krupp.

More information about CS+ can be found on their website at mops.bw.edu/csplus. All of the tech camp videos can be accessed on their YouTube channel, CSPlus Tech Camps from Baldwin Wallace University.