Teach teens computing: Encryption and cryptography

Sign-ups for this course on edX are closing on the 16 February 2026 and it will be removed from edX on 31 March 2026. A free, updated version of the course is available now on our new Training Hub. You can access the updated course there today . We hope to see you on the Training Hub soon. --- This online course from the Raspberry Pi Foundation explores encryption and cryptography. You'll learn about what encryption is and how it was used in the past, and use the Caesar and Vigenère ciphers. You'll also look at modern encryption, and investigate both symmetric and asymmetric encryption schemes. The course also takes a look at the future of encryption, and includes several practical encryption activities that are also appropriate to use in the classroom.

• Describe the general process of encryption and decryption
• Apply a Caesar cipher and a Vigenère cipher
• Discuss the advantages and disadvantages of different encryption algorithms
• Compare symmetric and asymmetric encryption
• Demonstrate methods of breaking simple encryption schemes
• Describe how encryption is used in the modern world, and some of the possible ethical implications of this