Computing education often focuses on future specialists, yet digital transformation benefits from wider participation. If students in business, social sciences, or the arts also need to engage with computational practices, higher education should offer accessible entry points. This project proposes a pedagogical low-code pathway that frames application building as an inclusive route into computational thinking, design practice, and innovation.

Our approach draws on Aristotle’s three unities of classic drama—action, place, and time—applied to education as an interactive play rather than a linear lecture, as explored in prior work [6]. This framing keeps learning concise and iterative while deepening skills.

The project unfolds in three acts: (1) a Manifesto, based on surveys and focus groups across five countries; (2) Course materials, written as a 13-module story; and (3) the Platform, an interactive stage where learners act, test, and collaborate. The platform emphasizes a distributed topology of nodes—browser-based, decentralized, and transparent in version control. Each node is autonomous, enabling institutions to adapt content locally while remaining part of a global ecosystem.

Skills are built progressively: from vision and mission framing to Markdown for clarity, Git for traceability, YAML for configuration, Python for lightweight programming, and AI copilots for assistance. Learners also practice state-of-the-art methods including Model-Driven Engineering, Domain-Driven Design, event modeling, living documentation, and test-first workflows.

Pilots on three continents, spanning five universities and professional training, show rapid uptake, demonstrating that low-code, framed pedagogically, offers a scalable and distributed entry point for computing education and innovation, supporting learners with diverse cognitive needs.

Michel Zam, PhD, serves as an Associate Professor in Computer Science at Paris Dauphine University - PSL and is a co-founder of KarmicSoft. With expertise in software architecture, model-driven engineering, and agile frameworks, Michel is adept at guiding both student groups and large professional teams towards value-driven software development. Michel is proficient at conceptualizing and steering innovative gamified tutorials, comfortably accommodating 10 to 100 participants by integrating agile facilitation with a blend of in-person and digital tools.