Features for Teachers
This is a list of lesser known features that teachers have found useful when using MakeCode.
Printing and Snapshots
If you want to include examples of code in printed materials, there are two good ways to do this:
Printing
In the editor, you can print the current project you are working with by clicking the cogwheel in the top right corner and selecting Print.
This will produce a view of the code from your project that is printer friendly.
Snapshot
You can save a .png file with an image of all the blocks in your current projects using the Snapshot feature.
Right click on the Workspace (press and hold on touch devices) and select Snapshot.
Sharing
You can create links to share your project using the Share button in the top left corner of the editor.
Embed
If you have a class website that supports adding HTML elements to web pages,
you can embed the simulator, code, or the full editor from the share screen.
Tutorials
Tutorials are examples that guide students through the process of creating programs step by step, using just the features and blocks limited what is most important. Typically, the first examples on the home page are tutorials. They help introduce students to the concepts they need to write simple programs.
Writing your own
If you want to create your own examples for your students to follow, you can create a tutorial yourself!
Sharing a tutorial
If you are using a tutorial in a class, it may be helpful to give your students a link that goes directly to the tutorial. Instructions to do this are available in the FAQ.
Classroom
These features are specially designed to be used in a classroom.
Green screen
You can enable the Green Screen feature from the cogwheel menu in the editor. It will render the video stream of a webcam on the background of the code editor. Great to mix coding and filming the device.
Courses
Many editors include free courses that you can use in your class; if you want to print or save these courses, you can use a special url to convert the entire course into a single page. The format for this is:
https://[editor url]/--docs#book:/[course location under the docs folder]For example, here are the steps to create a ‘book’ view of an introductory course
for MakeCode Arcade. The course is found at https://arcade.makecode.com/courses/csintro1,
so the first step is to split that into two parts: the editor url (https://arcade.makecode.com)
and the location of the course (/courses/csintro1).
To get the course book, you combine the two with /--docs#book: in between them:
https://arcade.makecode.com/--docs#book:/courses/csintro1and after a few moments of compiling the page, you should have a complete printable book for the course!
GitHub
MakeCode support storing projects in GitHub, a popular web site for hosting code and collaborative software development. The GitHub Explorer allows to list and review repositories from a user seamlessly.