Draft:Hedy (programming language)
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Hedy is an open-source educational programming language[1][2][3] designed to teach children how to code through a gradual introduction to programming syntax.[4][5] It provides a step-by-step learning path from basic programming concepts to writing code in Python and is primarily aimed at students aged 10 to 15.[6][7][3] Hedy is multilingual and currently available in 47 languages.[2]
Interface
[edit]Student interface
[edit]The Hedy student interface consists of four main sections:
Code can be executed by clicking the green “Run code” button, producing text or turtle graphics output. A yellow button allows students to copy example code to the console. A debug function highlights errors one by one and provides hints to help students identify and correct them. This feature is designed to be accessible and avoid overwhelming learners. A text-to-speech function can also read the console output aloud.[8]
Teacher interface
[edit]The teacher interface includes four main pages:
On the My classes page, teachers can monitor students’ progress, select which adventures are available, and create their own. Teachers can also restrict programming to English keywords, set opening dates for levels, and collaborate with other teachers within a class. Each student can only be enrolled in one class at a time.
Each level in Hedy includes built-in exercises called “adventures.” Teachers can create and share custom adventures, either privately within their classes or publicly on the platform, with optional tags for easier discovery.
The Slides section provides teaching materials explaining commands and examples for each level. The Public content section allows users to browse and search for publicly shared adventures using filters such as language, level, or keywords.
A separate Teacher manual[6] offers an overview of Hedy’s structure, target audience, and pedagogy, as well as a list of common mistakes and their solutions[10] for each level.[9]
Pedagogical approach
[edit]Gradual
[edit]Hedy serves as an introductory language to text-based languages such as Python.[4] It consists of 18 levels.[11] In the early levels, students use keywords such as print, ask, and sleep, along with variables and lists, without syntactic elements like brackets or colons. As they progress, new keywords and syntax are gradually introduced. Keywords in Hedy are often more descriptive than in other programming languages (e.g., ask corresponds to Python’s input), easing the transition to more complex programming.[10]
To reduce cognitive load, Hedy introduces only one new concept at a time,[12] allowing repetition between concepts.[4] This scaffolding based design reflects broader research in computing education suggesting that incremental exposure can support the development of computational thinking skills among beginners.[13]
Multilingual
[edit]Hedy currently supports multiple languages,[14] allowing students to learn in their native language, with keywords and adventures translated accordingly. This approach supports gradual transition to English-based programming languages like Python by allowing learners to switch between localized and English keywords.[4]
Community
[edit]Hedy maintains an international community of teachers, translators, and software contributors.[15] Educators use Hedy in classrooms, while volunteer translators expand its multilingual availability.
The source code is hosted on GitHub, where contributors help develop new features, fix issues, and improve translations.[16] Users can access Hedy directly through a web browser or download and run it locally.[16][5] Community engagement also occurs through Discord,[6] newsletters, and social media platforms such as LinkedIn.[2]
Hedy Foundation
[edit]The Hedy Foundation is a nonprofit organization based in Oegstgeest, Netherlands, responsible for maintaining Hedy. The foundation is governed by a board consisting of Felienne Hermans, Eelko Huizing, and Renée Merbis, who serve without compensation.[17]
The foundation aims to further develop Hedy, along with its teaching materials and user guides.[3]
History
[edit]Hedy was founded by Felienne Hermans,[3][18] a computer science professor at the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam.[19][20] She designed the language to provide beginners with a smoother transition between visual and textual programming environments.[21][22] The platform has expanded internationally, with contributions from educators, translators, and researchers in computing education.[15]
Philosophy of Hedy
[edit]Hedy is designed to make textual programming more accessible to a broad range of learners, regardless of language or prior experience. It bridges the gap between visual programming environments like Scratch and textual languages like Python, offering a smoother transition for beginners.[4][23]
References
[edit]- ^ "Textual programming made easy with Hedy | Network Institute". networkinstitute.org. 7 July 2025.
- ^ a b c "Hedy". hedy.org.
- ^ a b c d "Hedy helps schoolchildren everywhere learn to code | About SIDN | SIDN". sidn.nl.
- ^ a b c d e Hermans, Felienne. "Hedy: A Gradual Language for Programming Education" (PDF).
- ^ a b "Teach anyone how to code with Hedy | Opensource.com". opensource.com.
- ^ a b c "Hedy Documentation". hedy.org. Retrieved 2025-08-22.
- ^ Bloem, Brigitte (October 2020). "Met Hedy stap voor stap leren programmeren" (PDF). Vives. No. 170. pp. 38–39. Archived (PDF) from the original on 2025-01-29. Retrieved 2025-08-17.
- ^ a b c d e "Hedy". hedy.org.
- ^ a b c d e "Hedy - For teachers". hedy.org.
- ^ a b "Hedy Documentation". hedy.org.
- ^ Bolt, Julia. "An approach to describing the semantics of Hedy, a gradual programming language for education" (PDF).
- ^ "Design, implementation and evaluation of the Hedy programming language - ScienceDirect". sciencedirect.com. doi:10.1016/j.cola.2022.101158.
- ^ "Remixing as a Pathway to Computational Thinking | Proceedings of the 19th ACM Conference on Computer-Supported Cooperative Work & Social Computing". dl.acm.org. doi:10.1145/2818048.2819984.
- ^ "Roles of Variables in the Hedy Programming Language | Proceedings of the 2024 ACM SIGPLAN International Symposium on SPLASH-E". dl.acm.org. doi:10.1145/3689493.3689984.
- ^ a b "HCCL: Hedy: Community, Content and Localisation | NWO". nwo.nl.
- ^ a b "hedyorg/hedy: Hedy is a gradual programming language to teach children programming. Gradual languages use different language levels, where each level adds new concepts and syntactic complexity. At the end of the Hedy level sequence, kids master a subset of syntactically valid Python". github.com.
- ^ "Hedy - Learn more". hedy.org. Retrieved 2025-09-04.
- ^ "Felienne Hermans - Joy of Coding 2022". joyofcoding.org.
- ^ "Felienne Hermans (0000-0003-0722-0156) - ORCID". orcid.org.
- ^ "dblp: Felienne Hermans". dblp.org.
- ^ "Hedy – Felienne Hermans". felienne.com. 5 March 2020.
- ^ "Felienne Hermans - Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam". research.vu.nl.
- ^ ""Hedy: A Gradual programming language" by Felienne Hermans (Strange Loop 2022)". youtube.com. 18 October 2022.