Alps vs Runestone Academy
Both help schools teach computer science. Here’s what each one is for, and where they differ.
What each one is for
Alps
Alps helps every CS student reach mastery: practice matched to each student, help when they’re stuck, and a view of who needs help and why. It runs on open textbooks, publisher titles and your own material.
Who it serves: CS classes from block coding through AP and college CS.
Runestone Academy
A free, open-source platform for interactive CS and math textbooks, run by a nonprofit, with runnable code, Parsons problems and peer instruction.
Who it serves: High school and college CS and math classes, and self-learners.
How they compare
| Topic | Alps | Runestone |
|---|---|---|
| What you teach from | ||
| Course material | ||
| Course material | Runestone books such as CSAwesome2, other open books and publisher titles; paste a worksheet to get auto-graded activities. | 50+ openly licensed CS and math books; teachers write exercises and share them in a common bank. |
| Several sources in one class | ||
| Several sources in one class | Several titles and your own activities in one class; each section sees the units you choose. | One book per course; problem sets can draw on other books. |
| Languages and tools | ||
| Languages and tools | Python, Java, C/C++, SQL, JavaScript, HTML/CSS, notebooks, block coding and a cyber range, in the browser. | Python, JavaScript, HTML and SQL in the browser; Java, C and C++ on its servers. |
| Practice and help for each student | ||
| Mastery tracking | ||
| Mastery tracking | Estimated skill by skill from every run, hint and test result, and shown by unit in the Gradebook. | Counts of each student’s completed and correct activities, by chapter and page. |
| Practice at each student’s level | ||
| Practice at each student’s level | Alps matches each student’s practice to their mastery, from 10,000+ leveled problems with verified solutions and tests. | The teacher and the book’s authors choose the exercises; adaptive Parsons get easier after repeated misses. |
| Differentiated assignments | ||
| Differentiated assignments | Alps groups the class by mastery and engagement, then builds each group’s work in under a minute; you review first. | Accommodations the teacher sets per student or group: extra time, later due dates, assignments others can’t see. |
| Help when a student is stuck | ||
| Help when a student is stuck | On by default on most coding problems: a hint, an outline, then the step as a puzzle; help, not the answer. | CodeLens, answer feedback, Help Me on adaptive Parsons; puzzles from a student’s code and a tutor where enabled. |
| Grading | ||
| Code grading | ||
| Code grading | Unit tests on submit, written for you on your own activities, plus checks on how Python and Java code was written. | Partial credit by unit tests passed; CSAwesome’s exercises include tests, and you write tests for your own. |
| Written answers | ||
| Written answers | AI grading against a rubric, criterion by criterion, with feedback; your score stands. | Short answers credited for completion and graded by hand. |
| Insights for the teacher | ||
| Live view during class | ||
| Live view during class | Who is working, reading or stopped, and on what; students who stall rise to the top. | Students Online lists who is online and the page each is on, in real time. |
| Why a student is stuck | ||
| Why a student is stuck | Groups students by what stops them (a failing test, a repeated error, lost working code), each with a next step. | The teacher drills into each student’s answers and the code from each run. |
| Where the class is stuck | ||
| Where the class is stuck | Wrong answers and errors many students share, what to revisit and why, and how other classes did. | Questions sorted by first-try success, with each option’s picks; the teacher chooses what to revisit. |
| How the work was done | ||
| How the work was done | A replay that flags the same error run after run, working code that broke, or a large paste. | The code from every run is saved; the teacher scrubs a timeline to view each version. |
| Running it in a school or district | ||
| Sign-in and rosters | ||
| Sign-in and rosters | Google, Microsoft, Clever or ClassLink sign-in; rosters from Google Classroom or your LMS, not Clever or ClassLink. | Username accounts, no real email needed; students join by course name, CSV or LTI. |
| Grades to your LMS | ||
| Grades to your LMS | Google Classroom and any LTI 1.3 LMS; assignments appear there and grades sync back automatically. | LTI 1.3 and 1.1 grade passback to Canvas, Moodle and D2L; an instructor can set up 1.1 alone. |
| Student data privacy | ||
| Student data privacy | FERPA and COPPA compliant; signs district DPAs and the NDPA. | Has signed the NDPA in many states; publishes a FERPA statement. |
| Reporting for leaders | ||
| Reporting for leaders | Progress and mastery by school, course and section, with dashboards built to your questions. | Reports per course, for instructors and TAs. |
| Training and support | ||
| Training and support | Office hours and email support; training and PD by quote. | An instructor guide and videos, Discord, and weekly drop-in calls. |
| Other differences | ||
| Open source and self-hosting | ||
| Open source and self-hosting | A hosted service; not open source. | Open source (MIT); a school can run its own server. |
| Subjects beyond computer science | ||
| Subjects beyond computer science | Computer science, data science and statistics; no math titles. | Math as well as CS, with WeBWorK problems. |
| Peer instruction | ||
| Peer instruction | No built-in peer instruction. | Live and asynchronous peer instruction, from University of Michigan research. |
| Price | ||
| Price | A free plan runs a whole class with practice, hints and auto-grading; paid plans, at published prices, add licensed titles, rubric grading and LMS sync. | Free; paid only for LTI 1.3 where a school requires paperwork, and for WeBWorK hosting. |
Where each one is a strong fit
Where Runestone Academy is a strong fit
If you want a nonprofit, open-source platform where open textbooks are written and published, in math as well as CS, with peer instruction built in and code you can host yourself.
Where Alps is a strong fit
If you want practice matched to each student, help when they’re stuck and a view of who needs help and why, with publisher or your own titles beside open books. CSAwesome2 and other Runestone books are in the Alps catalog.
As of October 2026. Details about Runestone Academy come from its own public pages, listed below, and details about Alps from this site. If something here has changed, email support@alps.2sigma.us.