Coding: 16-year-old Fremont student writes AP test-prep book, creates online course

FREMONT — Moksh Jawa, 16, captures the essence of Silicon Valley startup thinking and energy. “Why not?” might be his motto.

As a seventh-grader, he studied up on the Internet and taught himself coding.

As a freshman, after studying on his own, he passed the AP Computer Science A exam with a 5, the highest score possible.

As a sophomore, because his Fremont high school didn’t teach coding, he developed his own online course and shepherded classmates through it.

As a junior, he distilled those lessons into a 450-page test-prep book, now sold on Amazon.

What’s next? Lots more. Jawa is a young man on a mission to spread the wonders and dispel fears of computer science. Quickly.

On Tuesday, leaders of tech, government and education petitioned Congress to invest in computer science education. Even if Congress responds, it could take years for schools to see any funds, juggle schedules, hire teachers and enroll students — even as the University of California steadfastly refuses to credit computer science as anything other than an elective course, a stance that discourages high schoolers from enrolling.

But Jawa is in too much of a hurry to wait for institutional action.

“I’ve never met a Mark Zuckerberg or a Sheryl Sandberg, but that’s the type of drive Moksh has,” said Mike Jan, who advises the computer science club that Jawa started at Washington High.

His interest started in middle school, when his father gave him a link to Codeacademy, an online coding boot camp. He learned Python, an intermediate programming language.

“I just fell in love with computer science,” Jawa said. He found everything he needed to know online: “Every time you encounter a problem, the chances are that someone else has, too, and has figured it out.”

“I just told him, ‘This could be an interesting thing to learn,’ ” recalled his dad, Shalesh Jawa, who works runs his own business helping clients implement software but is not himself a coder. Moksh’s mother, Rachna Jawa, is a dietitian.

Along the way, Moksh Jawa ignited the fire of curiosity and passion among classmates to learn coding, too.

“All of my friends, especially the girls, were really, really afraid of computer science,” he said. But the subject and exam weren’t things to be feared, he said. “Computer science is all about logic, not about how smart you are.”

Khan Academy, the popular site for online K-12 lessons, didn’t offer computer science. So Jawa set about creating his own Khan-like course, with easy-to-follow narrated lessons and invisible hands writing formulas on a board. He built in quizzes and tests. Then he realized he needed equipment such as a microphone and recording software.

He pitched tech companies.

“I found their contact information, found employees on LinkedIn and did cold emails and calls,” he said. “I really went all in.”

Udemy, the San Francisco-based online course provider, responded. Jawa’s pitch to them pointed out that while Udemy’s courses are popular among college students and young adults, his course could attract high schoolers to its platform.

“He was looking for a microphone. We certainly gave him one,” Udemy CEO Dennis Yang said. Impressed with his passion for sharing knowledge, Udemy provided Jawa $140 worth of equipment.

Yang said it’s not the production quality that makes a course stand out; it’s the quality of the teaching.

Jawa’s course, Decoding AP Computer Science A, has earned an average of 4.4 out of 5 stars from more than 100 reviewers on the Udemy site.

Udemy offers 40,000 courses; 90 percent charge a fee, usually ranging from $20 to $50. Jawa’s 115-lecture course is free, meaning neither he nor Udemy earns any money from it.

Available to anyone on the Internet, the course so far has attracted 3,200 students across the United States and in 120 countries, including China, Ukraine and Algeria.

It shows, Jawa said, the huge need for coding lessons.

When video lecturing, “I deliver like from one high school student to another. It’s always great to make it as clear as possible and to make it as fun as possible,” Jawa said, “and to try to keep my voice as energetic as possible.”

He does that, too, when teaching members of the computer science club he founded at Washington.

“His tutorials were great,” said junior Taj Shaik, club co-president, who took the entire course last year. “I’m definitely one of the early adopters of Moksh.”

“He’s pretty amazing,” said Principal Bob Moran, who observed the club. “He was just a fantastic teacher,” clear, organized and entertaining. “When a kid got the right answer, he would throw them a piece of candy.”

Still, Jawa realized that not all kids like online learning, but most read test-prep books. But he found those lacking as well — he was shocked to find one popular brand didn’t require actually using a computer.

So starting last summer, he wrote his own 450-page guide and self-published it on Amazon’s CreateSpace.com.

His “Decoding AP Computer Science A: For a High Schooler, By a High Schooler” has sold more than 200 copies since going on sale in February.

At $10.99, Jawa makes 15 cents on each copy.

“I’m not trying to make money,” he said.

Jawa has given a TEDx talk about creating his course. He secured an internship this summer at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, researching digital learning. As California president of DECA, the association of teachers and students interested in business, he attended its national conference and competition.

He’s also Washington High’s No. 1 tennis player and is state-ranked, teacher Jan, who coaches the team, said.

Jawa’s enthusiasm and entrepreneurship helped prod the Fremont Unified School District to offer computer science at Washington next school year. One hundred students signed up for 40 seats in the class.

Besides being brilliant, “he’s just a nice kid,” his principal, Moran, said. “He’s got a good head on his shoulders to deal with the gifts he’s been given.”

Contact Sharon Noguchi at 408-271-3775. Follow her at Twitter.com/noguchionk12.