Design and development of an online application for acquisition of computational thinking skills

The development of technology necessitated the reconstruction of the definition of many concepts, as well as created new concepts and enabled them to take part in our lives. The first of these concepts comes from the problems faced by our children and the ability to be prepared for the business life and the 21st century skills which are the characteristics that should be possessed. In this study; computational thinking skills, which are among the new concepts of the 21st century, have been dealt with and an online environment has been developed and designed to teach these skills. This research is a design and development research, and among the research which is called type 1, is among the research that is carried out with the aim of developing new products and tools. It can be said that the study, which is the most distinctive feature of design and development research, establishes a link with the real world. When design and development research is evaluated in terms of the way it is done, it was evaluated that it would be appropriate to perform with the ADDIE (Analysis, Design, Development, Implementation, Evaluation) model. The ADDIE model includes the steps of analysis, design, development, implementation and evaluation. In this study, the interview technique was used among the qualitative data collection tools for the experts and the users of the subject, and according to the interviews, our practice was re-evaluated and finalized. In this context, 5 students and 5 experts were interviewed continuously and their opinions about the environment were taken. Various arrangements were made on the environment with the opinions of experts and teachers. After completing the environment, authentic tasks were determined and authenticity tests were carried out with 3 students. The interviews and tests conducted during the entire development period, as well as the scenarios of the application, are reviewed again and the final version is given. During our study, the interview technique was used among the qualitative data collection tools for the experts and the users of the subject, and according to the interviews, our practice was re-evaluated and finalized. In interviews and usability tests, it was observed that the students were able to adapt very quickly to the educational environment and that the experts were more concerned about the environment. It was seen that a programming language syntax should be adopted during application environment design and development. The application in this field in our country has been welcomed by many experts. The application colors, the characters used in it and the music played in the application have been observed to increase the motivation of the students directly.