About the author

BitWizards is a one-person project. The platform, every course, example and exercise, and the pages you are reading now are made by me: Bartosz Bryniarski. I am a programmer, a teacher and a university lecturer at the same time, and I research how students learn programming.

Experience

Programming: nearly 30 years. From the first Perl scripts, through PHP, to applications in Python, Java and JavaScript, databases, Docker and the in-browser code engines BitWizards runs on.
Secondary school: 7 years. I teach vocational IT subjects to future IT and programming technicians at a Polish technical secondary school, as well as mathematics and computer science.
University: 4 years. I teach everything IT: programming, cloud computing, operating systems and related topics.

Education

Computer science:

engineering degree (BEng) in computer engineering,
master’s degree, specialization in the Internet of Things and future networks,
postgraduate studies: Python developer, cybersecurity and digital forensics, software testing.

Teaching:

teacher training qualification,
teaching mathematics and physics,
teaching gifted children,
tutoring and mentoring in education.

Research and publications

I research how students learn programming. The full history of a student’s work in the editor, which BitWizards records, serves exactly this purpose (anonymized and only with voluntary consent): it shows how a solution takes shape step by step, where students get stuck and what helps them move on.

Bryniarski, B. (2025). A holistic approach to teaching programming in an IT technical school: a case study of the effectiveness of project-based learning in preparation for the INF.03 exam (in Polish). Dydaktyka Informatyki, 20, 121-127. DOI: 10.15584/di.2025.20.9, article page.

More publications are in preparation. ORCID: 0009-0009-8980-5895.

My observations

The article describes a group of 21 technical school students in 2022-2025 who prepared for the INF.03 exam through projects, combining HTML, CSS, JavaScript, PHP and databases in one working website instead of repeating past papers. The pass rate in this group was 76.2%, against an estimated national average of 64.71%. It is one group with no control group, but it matches what I see in the classroom every day: students learn the most when they build something that works and see the effect of their code right away.

That is where the key features of BitWizards come from:

code runs right in the browser, with no environment to install,
stepping shows what every line does and how variables change,
exercises check themselves, so students do not wait for feedback,
work history and live view let the teacher see where a student got stuck, not only the final result,
courses lead from small steps to whole projects.

Other projects

zawodowe.edu.pl: a question bank and learning platform for Polish vocational exams, with Android and iPhone apps.
brylka.net: a blog about programming, operating systems and cybersecurity, and a project portfolio.

Why it is free

BitWizards is free for schools, teachers and students. I build it because as a teacher I know what is missing in computer science lessons, and as a programmer I can build it. The content is licensed under CC BY-NC 4.0, so you can use it in your lessons.

Contact

Questions, feedback on the courses and collaboration ideas: kontakt [at] bitwizards.pl. How to start with a class is described on the how to start page.