Getting Started

Do you want to teach CS50 in your school, city, or community? This is how you can get started.

1. Note that CS50's content is licensed by David J. Malan of Harvard University under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 Unported License. For more details, please go over this information.
2. We strongly encourage teachers to take CS50 before teaching it in their school or community. While you may have a strong CS background, being familiar with our content, teaching style, and culture will have a positive impact in how you design and run your class. There are two ways to take CS50 online:
   1. CS50 via edX: this is a free course you can take on your own time, with all the resources you need to complete the course.
   2. CS50 via Harvard's Extension School: this is a paid course, where you earn a Harvard Extension School certificate and have online support from our CS50 Teaching Fellows. Unlike the edX version, this course is paced, and you may choose between taking the full course in one semester via CSCI E-50, or take it between two semesters with CSCI E-50A and CSCI E-50B.
3. Go over our list of CS50 Resources, which includes video lectures, notes, slides, sections, walkthroughs, problem sets, and more.
4. When naming your course, follow these conventions:
   1. If you're teaching university level, name your group CS50x [University Name]. If teaching independent of a school or university, name it CS50x [City].
   2. If you're teaching high school level, name your group CS50 AP [School Name]. Similarly, if teaching independent of a high school, name it CS50 AP [City].
5. We encourage our teachers to either adopt the course as is, following the same structure, content, and pace we have at Harvard, or adapt it to your local needs based on your judgement as a teacher. For example, this means you are free to show your students the same video lectures from David, or re-create the lecture yourself in class. You are the best person to judge how to design your class, so we are supportive in what you decide.
6. Join our online CS50 community via our Facebook group.
7. Drop us a note at [email protected] to say hi, along with an overview of your plans. We'd love to support you in any way we can.