CodeGym is an interactive online course for learning Java programming language from scratch. Our course is good for both beginners and more advanced students, because the complexity of tasks increases as you go through the course. The first levels teach basic Java concepts, such as ‘objects’, ‘classes’, ‘variables’, ‘methods’ and so on. Gradually, the topics become more and more sophisticated, and so do the tasks. The course is practice-oriented and game-based. There are no long boring lectures, just short ones, which explain specific topics. After the lecture students must solve different tasks to gain “Dark Matter”. The “Dark Matter” is a specific CodeGym course “currency”, which students must collect by completing the course tasks and then use to unlock new lectures and levels. CodeGym consists of 6 quests, each devoted to a specific Java area. The first two quests, Java Syntax and Java Core are available now for free. The rest are currently under development. The whole course includes 1200 practical tasks with instant solution checking, as well as 500 lectures supplemented with funny stories, motivational videos and articles. To make the most of the course, students can solve tasks in the Intellij IDEA IDE software, by using the CodeGym plugin. Also, students can ask for help with tasks, or other more general issues, in the Help section. In the ‘Groups’ section, students can communicate, share their experience and stories. That’s why CodeGym is not only a platform to learn Java, but also a place where students can connect and make friends. This makes the learning process more enjoyable.
