Steemit Crypto Academy feedback by @alphafx
designed on canva
Introduction
A long holiday away from steemit it has been, but I absolutely had to come back in time foer this review. Being one of the early adopters of the academy, from season 1 and a professor during the second season, and was active till the fifth season. Exams kept me at bay, but I still logged in periodically to see how well we were doing. I've no doubt had my fair share of experiences in the academy, as a student and as a prof.
What worked well with the Academy?
Beginner Tasks
Having been a professor and discussed the inclusion of a concept like this with @sapwood in the second season, I was glad at its implementation and success. The students prior to this did not have basic knowledge on blockchain operations, and this limited their ability to perform tasks successfully. I remember students failing to differentiate binance smartchain from binance exchange, and led to a poor work done by them. These courses served as a walking guide for the newbies.
Season Superstars
A nice addition to the academy. This encouraged consistency, and long term targets from students. People who did not make it to the top three after scoring well had something to look forward to and did not feel discouraged. It was an ingenious addition.
Club 5050
While I did not reap the rewards from this, due to personal reasons that have now been resolved, I must agree that its inclusion had a serious impact in the mindset of the academy members, and the steem blockchain in general. It encouraged holding, trust and investment into the platform, and controlled bullish pressure.
What did not work well?
Grading Parameters
It was during the season two that the parameters for grading were mandated for professors to set theirs and follow. Recently professors have been grading not according to the labeled parameters. For example, a professor gives a completely original post 0.5/2 in originality, how does that make sense? Questioning one once, I was told it was because I derailed from the topic or something of the sort, again I asked, what has that got to do with originality? This should be looked into
Mandatory 150sp power-up
Now this point might be completely biased but, this requirement affected a lot of people. Most of my friend I brought into steemit who are in the academy wew my classmated, medical students and we dropped blogging for a while to prepare for our mbbs exam. After the exam mid december, most of us had no source of fund to buy steem to power up and it was discouraging, and gaining upvotes outside the academy to build would be an uphill journey to achieve before the season ends, so most of us started sourcing money to buy steem externally. I'm sure some other people had similar problems
Derailment from set task
Some assignment would be given, for example, the #yohan2on-s4week3 assignment on possible applications of blockchain in the health sector. I went out of my way to design a running system linking WHO to all health establishments in the world, through blockchain. This is a personal idea, I felt really proud to have thought of. I was disappointed to be beaten to the top 3 by students who described already existing applications of blockchain. This one is the freshest in my memory but is not the only incident, I have heard similar complaints too.
Tier issues
Last but not the least. I think I have heard more feedback on this from the steemit community I formed in my school's campuses than on anything else. This involves cases where we have beginner assignments being tougher/more advanced than advanced courses. I remember when the idea for tiers was discussed, this was not the concept I proposed. the same newbies who should have less tasking work to do ended up having tougher curriculum to process.
How you would improve the Academy?
To be honest, asides the above listed problems, I believe the academy is being ran smoothly. All I can suggest is;
Set specific types of content for the tiers:
Eg; Beginners can learn concepts (mimblewimble, decentralization, etc). Intermediate can learn the trading concepts, and the advanced students can delve deeper into topics like on-chain metrics, protocols, bits of blockchain programming (p2sh, p2pkh).150sp powerup
I think this rule can be reduced to 100sp or replaced with mandatory power up of first 200-300 steem earned after one month of inactivity.
What did you think of the marking scheme for Academy posts?
They could be improved upon. As stated above.
And the rewards available?
Adequate.
You can also tell us what you enjoyed most, and what you learnt from the Academy.
Reading topics on on-chain metrics, I learnt a different form of analysis I did not think about. There has been so many really interesting topics. I do not engage an assignment if I do not find it interesting. So I get carried away in and begin being too detailed then I find out I wont meet the deadline, knowledge gained all the same.
Has the Academy inspired you to continue learning more about crypto subjects?
Without a doubt yes.
If so, how and where have you extended your crypto learning?
Drawing a plan to build my own cryptocurrency for people of my demographic, Building nfts, creating communities, etc.
Has the Academy inspired you to start trading in crypto currencies?
I was a trader before that so....
If so, which ones?
BNB, Matic, steem, trx, ftm and sol are my most traded coins.
Conclusion
Every journey has its ups and downs. It's the lessons learned on the way that makes them beautiful. My journey on steemit was made even more beautiful by the academy, I pray we continue this program.