** Updated June 2024
IMPORTANT: Replit for Education will be shut down on August 1st, 2024
Replit's recent decision to discontinue their Teams for Education service has caused significant upheaval in the educational sector. Schools and coding bootcamps had heavily relied on Replit as a key component of their curricula and programs. However, the abrupt announcement has left many educators in a rush to find alternative platforms to support their coding classes.
Here are all the details you might need to find the right alternative and planning your migration before the service shuts down.
In April 2022, Replit launched Teams for Education, a collaborative browser-based IDE tailored for classroom use and available to teachers for free. Replit’s CEO, Amjad Masad, shared that the mission was "to bring the next billion software creators online" by enhancing educational accessibility. The initiative was quickly embraced by schools eager to encourage budding programmers.
However, just 18 months later, Replit announced it was discontinuing Teams for Education entirely. The company attributed the decision to the financial strain and infrastructure demands posed by the educational sector. This move reflects Replit's broader ambitions - while students were among their early adopters, the lure of venture capital and expansive goals have taken precedence. Recently, they announced securing $97.4 million in funding at a valuation of $1.16 billion to grow their cloud services and lead in AI development.
What's left unspoken is the impact of this abrupt change. Educators are now grappling with disrupted curriculums they had specifically developed around Replit’s platform. Student progress, previously tracked via Replit, is now uncertain. More troubling is that some schools invested significant funds, under the assumption that this free service would remain reliable –a risky expectation in the world of web applications.
Although several major platforms offer online browser-based coding environments, none are specifically tailored for educational use or include the essential tools teachers and teaching assistants need to manage their classes effectively. Here are a few examples:
DataWars is the closest alternative to Replit, providing almost a 1-to-1 set of features and functionalities. Below is a comprehensive list of all the features you should consider when searching for a viable alternative to Replit's Teams for Education:
With a solid track record as a top provider of hands-on training materials and an ever-expanding range of features, DataWars stands out as the clear choice to replace Replit Teams for Education.
DataWars offers a dedicated Teams platform designed for managing classes, that will allow you to invite students, organize them into teams, assign projects to students, review their submissions, and engage with them by providing feedback and reactions to their solutions.
Choose from a diverse range of Python and Computer Science/Data Science projects that are prepped and ready to assign to your students.
Add an unlimited number of students with either a direct link or through email invitations.
Create teams to better organize your classes and manage student groups efficiently.
Track each student’s progress with precise analytics, including completion percentages and time taken for tasks.
Quickly view your students’ project work and see their progress in real-time.
Comment on your students' solutions or implementations, and leave activity-specific reactions to give feedback.
You know what is the best part? It’s entirely FREE to get started.
Contact us, and we'll gladly work closely with you to assess your requirements and ensure DataWars meets all your criteria.
Reach out to us at hello@datawars.io, and we'll respond promptly.
