Teaching Ocaml
The Ocaml MOOC
30 October, 2015
C, Python and Javascript are the languages the students of my placement programme focus on. Good skills in these languages opens up a large number of career opportunities for talented students. I want my students to realize that the programming language ecosystem is rich and varied and there are a lot of languages out there learning which may not land them a job but will definitely expand their intellectual horizons. Ocaml is one such language. I was very happy to learn that there is a MOOC on Ocaml (https://www.france-universite-numerique-mooc.fr/courses/parisdiderot/56002/session01/about)- all the students of my two "placement" batches (about 30 students) have enrolled for the course. I conducted two sessions yesterday and the day before to give the students a quickstart. Most of these students are already familiar with functional programming concepts via Python - but Ocaml should give them a much stronger foundation as they get introduced to the power of the static type system and stuff like pattern matching, algebraic data types and parametric polymorphism.
