"Can you help me?"
Makayla Moster, Ella Kokinda, Matthew Re, James Dominic, Jason Lehmann, Andrew Begel, Paige Rodeghero
Abstract
Teamwork skills are increasingly important for students to have as they enter the workforce, especially in software development positions. However, autistic students do not get to practice teamwork since much of their education is focused on learning social skills. The hybrid mode of education comes with challenges, including communication and collaboration issues and teaming difficulties, however, this method of teaching and learning can be difficult for students with autism. In this experience report paper, we discuss our experience planning and running a hybrid camp to teach teamwork and programming to 14 autistic high school students. Overall, our camp was successful in teaching students software development skills with open source software, and, from our experience, we detail our lessons learned and provide recommendations for educators and researchers working with autistic students in a hybrid setting.