Lyza Education's Innovative Approach: Digital Badges for Young Coders

Kylie, a Coder of the Term winner at Lyza Education in 2025 Term 2!

Since 2023, Lyza Education has championed a vibrant learning experience where kids don’t just code in class—they have fun coding!

Balancing structured lessons with gamified activities, we embed creative challenges and problem-solving in every session, igniting curiosity and passion in young learners.

In Term 3, 2024, to mark the opening of our flagship Orchard centre, we proudly launched the Coder of the Term program. This award recognises students who produce outstanding coding projects. Exceptional work is rewarded not only with praise, but also with an exclusive medal as a badge of honour. This initiative reinforces core values at Lyza: creativity, resilience, and hands-on innovation.

Winners are celebrated at the end of the term and featured on our "Hall of Fame". The custom-designed medal serves as a tangible reminder of their achievements.

One of the award badges that was made by us. This is just one of the many that eligible students would get a chance to win if they deliver a good performance in class!

In June 2025, we introduced award badges on our platform too, recognising the student's achievements in various areas. Designed by Grace, our STEM Curriculum and Teaching Intern.

She combines her expertise from Computer Science and LASALLE's Animation programme, these bronze, silver, and gold trophies are the first of many to be introduced on the platform. Grace's unique background blends technical precision with creative design.

We sat down with Grace, to uncover the story behind her innovative vision.

---

Example of game skins

What sparked the idea of having award badges on the platform?

Inspired by the popularity of collectible game skins among teenagers and young adults, our founder Lizhang conceived the idea of introducing a similar engaging concept for children within a safe and suitable online learning environment. He recognized the potential for kids to also enjoy collecting exclusive digital items on a child-friendly platform focused on coding and AI education for ages 5-17.

This innovative approach to gamification aims to enhance motivation and engagement in our curriculum.

How did you translate Lyza’s “fun meets learning” ethos into the bronze, silver, and gold badge variants?

A Nintendo Switch drawn by Grace

To capture the essence of Lyza’s ‘fun meets learning’ ethos, I focused on designing badges that celebrate the joy of learning and captures the feeling of achievement. I posed Kebbi with its arms outstretched to show excitement and celebration, capturing the playful side of learning. By having different badge variants, it becomes like a game where students can be motivated to work their way through the different tiers.

Can you share the process of designing the bronze, silver, and gold medals to align with Lyza's 'fun meets learning' philosophy?

Ashlyn, one of the Coder of the Term winners at Lyza Education in 2025 Term 2!

When designing the badges, I knew I wanted to create a clean and simple design that would be easy to understand as well as being visually appealing on the achievement dashboard. Using bronze, silver and gold adds a fun sense of progress and acts as a positive reinforcement for students in their journey of learning.

How do these medals and badges enhance motivation among students in Lyza's AI and coding courses?

I hope the students will feel excited to collect the different badges. Most of the badges feature Kebbi, who has been part of most of the curriculum. By incorporating a familiar character, I hope to invoke a sense of connection and make their achievements more meaningful by having Kebbi celebrate their progress.

Looking ahead, how might you expand the “Coder of the Term” series (e.g., new tiers, seasonal champions) to sustain long-term engagement?

Beyond the existing CoTT award badges, we are developing a broader and more engaging range of digital badges for students to earn within our AI and coding curriculum.

High-achieving students will gain exclusive invites to coding competitions, providing opportunities to earn additional recognition badges on our platform and showcase their accomplishments in AI and coding. This expanded badge system aims to enhance student engagement and motivation in our educational programs for ages 5-17.

Snippets of Grace's drafts, where similar to coding, developing art is also an iterative, step-by-step process!

Teacher Grace drawing a mockup of Kebbi

How has your background in both computer science and animation uniquely positioned you to design these award badges?

Animation gave me the tools to create fun and appealing visuals, while computer science allows me to understand what young coders are motivated by and what interests them. I can relate to their learning journey and it has helped me to reimagine the concepts we teach into illustrations that are meaningful and enjoyable.

What advice would you give to aspiring educators looking to integrate design and technology in their teaching methods?

Rather than advice, I would like to share a wish for educators to embrace the fun of designing and to just go for it. In art, there is no right or wrong answer and mixing it with technology has the power to make learning more immersive and engaging. It can help students connect with the material in new ways. Be open to learning new things and have a willingness to experiment. Sometimes the strangest ideas turn out to work the best.

Looking for an exciting way to help your child learn coding and AI this September? Lyza Education is offering September holiday camps in Orchard, Tampines, and Bukit Timah, where kids will dive into engaging, hands‑on projects, from block‑based coding to real‑world AI applications like Kebbi the robot, all in a fast-paced, fun format.

Limited slots available. Secure your child’s place in our September holiday camp now and give them a creative, confidence-building head-start in tech that families in your neighbourhood can easily access.