Nexon and Bebras have cooperated and revealed BIKO, a short for Bebras Informatics Korea. It is a free coding learning platform with which both companies aim to narrow the digital divide gap and expand programming.
In July last year, Nexon and Bebras announced the development of the tentatively called Bebras Programming, a learning platform that anyone can learn free programming before officially naming the website “BIKO” with the beta opening.
“BIKO” is a systematic educational site based on computing thinking, basic text coding, and in-depth learning. This beta version contains 100 different types of programming questions collected from home and abroad, including the NYPC (Nexon Youth Programming Challenge).
For the first time in Korea, the fill-in-the-blank-questions called “blank challenge” is newly introduced in “BIKO.” Programming beginners can easily find answers to the questions as they can derive the correct answer through front and back codes without knowledge of coding grammar.
Nexon will officially launch it in late 2023 to expand programming education by adding a “Class” function that allows learning and evaluation for all students and teachers.
The company will revamp the online learning platform in public education, increasing the number of questions and providing video content that shows how to find answers to the questions.
Nexon made a recruitment announcement for elementary, middle, and high schools on the 24th of this month to conduct a test operation of “BIKO” in classes and plans to hold an online briefing session. A total of 30 schools will be selected to collect feedback from teachers and students through a three-week test operation.
Kim Dong-yoon, CEO of Bebras Korea, said, “There has been a wide gap in programming education, and the gap is different by country, region, gender, and income, and there have been many difficulties in increasing the number of programming users.”
He also added, “We will continue to make efforts with the Nexon Foundation so that ‘BIKO’, which teaches all the stages of coding from the basics to advanced levels, can be a great help to future generations who will lead the fourth industrial revolution,” he said.
“BIKO’ is in the midst of development with the goal of an integrated coding education platform that enables “self-directed learning within a systematic curriculum,” said Kim Jung-wook, chairman of Nexon Foundation. And he added, “We hope that domestic children and teenagers who did not have easy access to coding will experience the joy of programming through this beta.”
Meanwhile, the Nexon Foundation has been operating the “Nexon Youth Programming Challenge (NYPC) since 2016 to raise youth participation in programming and develop their ability to solve problems and expand the youth programming base, including the Novel Engineering (Novel Engineering) education project called “High Five Challenge.”
Source: Pangyo Techno Valley Official Newsroom