A free online course that introduces computational thinking and the Scratch programming language has just started. Aimed primarily at K-12 educators it is open to anyone who wants to join in. 

The six-week Creative Computing Online Workshop from the ScratchEd Team at Harvard University uses Google's Course Builder, a platform built to support MOOCs (massive online open courses) and is funded by a CS4HS grant.

The class started on Monday June 3rd and runs until Friday July 12th and the workload is estimated at 10-12 hours per week. It consists of short video lectures and daily activities that can be completed at any time plus twice-weekly office hours when the course team respond to questions and comments "face-to-face". These are at set times on Tuesdays and Fridays.

Participants maintain an electronic design notebook that is submitted each week for peer review.

The rubric states that you can participate as much or as little as you like during the six weeks, and that all of the resources will be publicly available after the workshop.  

On the other hand those who would like to earn a certificate of participation will need to submit their design notebook with the major weekly activities completed and peer-reviewed by July 12. 

This video outlines the workshop, explains why everyone needs an appreciation of programming and introduces Scratch: 

With its graphical, block-structured, approach Scratch is an easy and engaging language for children and adults who have never programmed before. The recently released Version 2 makes it even easier to get started and this new resource seems a great way to gain it the audience it deserves.