Article · Wikipedia archive · Last revised Jun 14, 2026

Sense (programming)

Sense is an educational programming environment created by The Open University (OU) in the United Kingdom. It uses a drag-and-drop programming environment designed to teach students the fundamentals of computer programming, using different shape and colour "blocks" selected from a palette of available commands, meaning that the student needs no prior experience of programming nor need to learn a syntax. It is based on the Scratch programming language developed by the MIT Media Lab, and uses .sb files like Scratch but the two pieces of software cannot use each other's files.

Last revised
Jun 14, 2026
Read time
≈ 1 min
Length
318 w
Citations
11
Source
Wikipedia ↗
Sense
Paradigmobject-oriented, educational, event-driven
Designed byThe Open University
DeveloperThe Open University
First appeared2008 (2008)
Stable release
Build 136
Typing disciplineDynamic
Implementation languageSqueak
OSWindows, OS X, Linux1
Filename extensions.sb2
Websitesense.open.ac.uk
Major implementations
Scratch
Influenced by
Scratch

Sense is an educational programming environment created by The Open University (OU) in the United Kingdom.34 It uses a drag-and-drop programming environment designed to teach students the fundamentals of computer programming, using different shape and colour "blocks" selected from a palette of available commands, meaning that the student needs no prior experience of programming nor need to learn a syntax. It is based on the Scratch programming language developed by the MIT Media Lab,5 and uses .sb files6 like Scratch but the two pieces of software cannot use each other's files.7

The Sense programming environment is designed to work in conjunction with the SenseBoard, a specialised piece of hardware which connects to a user's computer via a USB connection.89 The SenseBoard has different input types such as sensors for infrared, light, sound (microphone), and temperature (thermometer), and outputs such as a motor and light emitting diodes (LEDs).10

Sense and the SenseBoard are primarily used as part of the OU's My Digital Life (TU100) module,11 but is also used to a lesser degree on other modules. Sense was trialed in London schools in late 2012.

References

References

  1. "OLCreate: TU100_1.0 Sense installation".
  2. "OLCreate: TU100_1.0 FAQ pages".
  3. Flaherty, Adam (14 June 2011). "Hands-on Learning with The SenseBoard Ubiquitous Computing Device". MAKE Blog. Retrieved 6 March 2012.
  4. Geere, Duncan (14 June 2011). "Technology Open University offers up hardware to coding students". Wired.co.uk. Retrieved 6 March 2012.
  5. "Open University offers up hardware to coding students (Wired UK)". www.wired.co.uk. Archived from the original on 17 June 2011.
  6. "OLCreate: TU100_1.0 FAQ pages".
  7. "OLCreate: TU100_1.0 FAQ pages".
  8. "Open University offers up hardware to coding students (Wired UK)". www.wired.co.uk. Archived from the original on 17 June 2011.
  9. "OLCreate: TU100_1.0 Sense installation".
  10. "OLCreate: TU100_1.0 Sense installation".
  11. "The Open University | Courses and Qualifications".
External links

Official website