Miha’s post
I’m so thrilled to share a glimpse into a new level editor for the Pišek block-based coding competition. It’s the biggest in Slovenia! As a computer science educator, I know the challenge of making computer science tangible and engaging for every student. This year, the development of assignments for our competition has changed in a great way.
The Cobie AI editorial platform is now being used by the program committee to create the assignments. Previously, we relied on outside programmers and CS Faculty students to build the problems. Now, the educators themselves can jump right into the easy-to-use editor and design creative, new challenges directly.
The power of this new workflow is clear. For example, a recent demonstration (link below) showed how to create a challenge like “The Hungry Hedgehog.”
In the editor, you start by designing the maze and placing the collectible pears (Level Map). You then configure the gameplay to require collecting all items. Crucially, you customize the student’s toolbox by selecting only essential blocks (like Move Forward, Turn Left, Turn Right) and including the Repeat/Loop block. By limiting the total number of blocks allowed, the editor forces students to learn efficiency, reinforcing the value of using loops over long, repetitive code sequences. This level of control for teachers is a game-changer for differentiation and teaching core concepts.
The change has sparked an incredible burst of creativity! It is so much easier to add new ideas, elements, and assignment types that were simply not possible before without lengthy development plans and collaboration with developers.
This type of platform Cobie AI is exactly what we need in education: a tool that removes technical hurdles and lets teachers focus on pedagogy and designing effective problems. It allows us to create differentiated assignments that truly help build computational thinking and problem-solving skills for all our students.
It took time for Cobie AI to develop this powerful tool, but seeing the pure, unrestrained imagination of fellow educators at work is inspiring. This is what happens when educational technology gives teachers the control to create truly impactful learning experiences.