Steemit Crypto Academy Feedback

Hello everyone!
My name is Cosmas Chime, @culzee. I am very glad to have taken right decision to join "Steemit Crypto Academy", the best online cryptocurrency academy platform in the whole wide world.

Before I joined the platform, I was a complete novice when it comes to cryptocurrency. I mean, I did not have any idea of what cryptocurrency is all about. Even when the guy who introduced me to Steemit recommended that I should join the academy, I was not interested at all.

Today, I am the happiest person in Steemit Crypto Academy. The reason is because the academy has exposed me so much to decentralized financial system, popular exchanges and cryptocurrency trading strategies.

Since I joined Steemit Crypto Academy, I have been so excited with the opportunity to learn, write and earn. I am very optimistic that I have found my way to wealth and fulfillment.

Brief detail of which season I took part in and the level

I joined the academy sometime in April 2021. Then I was a new comer in Steemit platform and was not qualified to participate in the crypto academy home work tasks.

Later around July when I completed my achievement 5 task 2, I had 50 reputation and above 200 Steem Power. I took part in the season 3 fixed introductory courses for beginners.

In season 4, I started participating in the weekly beginners level courses. Since then, I have been taking part in the beginners level courses till the end of season 5.

What worked well with the Academy

I must sincerely admit that so many things went well in the academy and I appreciate the academy leadership team for that. Below are some of the areas I think that worked well with the Academy.

* Organised level courses

I think this aspect of the academy worked very well. Before I qualified to take part in crypto academy home work, I usually visit the community from time to time. Each I visited I would not be able to identify which courses were meant for beginners and which courses were meant for intermediate and advanced students.

It was so confusing for me as a new person and I was left to wonder where to begin if I eventually qualifies to start taking part in the courses.

I was very happy that when I qualifies to start taking part in the courses in season 3, the courses were organised to have: Fixed introductory courses, Beginners Level courses, Intermediate Level courses and Advanced Level courses.

This initiative was perfect.

* Grading and reward system

This is another aspect of the academy that is worked well. It encourages and motivates participants to work hard and carry out research in other to attract high grade to receive high percentage vote from @steemcurator02

* Home work practicals

This part of the academy also worked well. In most of the home works, the professors usually include practical assignments where students are expected to show step by step procedures to perform a particular task. It was difficult and challenging but it helps us to acquire practical skills of cryptocurrency trading. I think this is very good. it really helped me a lot.

What did not work well

I honest appreciate the academy leadership team for good initiatives and dedication towards ensuring the progress and growth of Steemit Crypto Academy.

As I have said before, so many things are worked well in the academy of which I have mentioned some of them above, but I must express my dissatisfaction on certain issues that are not going down well in the academy. I believe if they are properly reformed or considerably reviewed will improve the growth of crypto academy community.

* #club5050 Rule

Introduction of this new rule is done with good intention of encouraging users to power up, but unfortunately this rule is causing more harm than good. This rule which requires users to power up at least 150 sp in the previous month is harsh and very difficult for many people especially beginners like me to meet up.

Let me use myself as am example.

I am self-employed and I earn on daily basis. This means that any day I do not go to work, I will not earn money. (I am not comfortable with this and that is exactly why I am dipping myself into crypto academy because I see a better future in it).

Now look at my situation, I spend about 3 to 4 days to complete one home work. The reason is because I take time to study the lecture material to fully understand the lesson. I also spend time to write, get images and screenshots, watermark, apply markdown, design and proofread my work before posting. This takes me days, so out of 6 days in a week, one home work takes me like 4 days while I have just 2 days to do other work.

If am lucky and my home work post gets like 10, when it pays out after 7 days and I will get author share of 5 (2.5 for SP and 2.5 for SBD). You can see, my expected withdrawal-able earning in the week is 2.5 SBD for instance. Now, if I should use this money to buy steem to power up in other to meet the #club5050 compulsory requirement for month, how can I get money to take care of myself, my family and some other responsibilities.

I think making it a compulsory requirement is very bad because it puts us in a very tight corner and it does not go down well.

* Consistent Increase of Reputation and Steem Power Requirement

This is another aspect of the academy that did not go well for me. I know this idea is meant to encourage users to do more research and to work very hard to producing quality home work and for the growth of Steemit, but I don't think the idea is working well.

I remember when I joined Crypto Academy in season 3, the reputation and Steem Power requirement for beginners level courses were 50 and 150, where as intermediate level courses required 55 reputation and 300 sp.

I worked so hard to hit the 55 and 300 sp requirements to join intermediate level courses in the next season. Alas! When the 4th season came, the reputation requirement for the intermediate level courses were increased from 55 to 60 and Steem Power from 300 to 400. This increment automatically disqualified me.

As I was still trying to meet up with the new requirement, in season 5 the Steem Power was also increased, this time from 400 to 600 sp. This was so frustrating to me because I ended in beginners level from season 3 till the end of season 5.

Now I have 60 reputation and about 792 sp, I am afraid if it will still be increased and I will perpetually remain in beginners level. This is not good at all, it is very discouraging.

* Delay in curating post:

This another personal experience I had which I noticed some other people complained several times. There were a lot of delay in curating home work posts even when they have been graded.

If you read comment section of many professors, you will see a lot of complain of people whose home work posts were not curated by @steemcurator02 and there are a lot of re-posts in steemit crypto academy community. Below is one of my post that was graded but was not curated until I re-posted it.

* Few number of courses per week

Think this aspect of the academy did not rally work well. There were 2 courses in each level of which one is in English and the other in another language. This did not go well. Two courses is too small in a whole week. This is why so many people especially those in intermediate and advanced level would participate in the beginners courses after they had completed the two courses at the higher level.

How you would improve the Academy

If I am giving opportunity to improve the Academy, I will do the following

• I will reduce the course requirements
• I will scrap #club5050 Rule and introduce an incentive to encourage those who power up regularly.
• I will ensure prompt curation of home work post, if it warrants using @steemcurator01, @steemcurator02 and @steemcurator03 account to achieve this, I will do it.
• I will also increase the weekly courses from 2 to 3 or 4 on each level

What changes would you make for future seasons of the Academy?

If I have power to make change for the future seasons of the Academy I will change the duration of each season.
I will change each season from 8 weeks to 4 months. That is, each quarter of the year serves as one season, so that in one year we will have only 4 seasons.

I will also slightly reduce the academy's requirements to encourage more people to take part in the crypto academy home work.

What did you think of the marking scheme for Academy posts? And the rewards available?

I don't think I have anything against the marking scheme. The area I think should be reviewed is the aspect of rewards. I appreciate the percentage of votes from Steemcurator02 but looking at how long it takes one to produce a well researched and quality home work, I think the reward percentage should be increased to encourage students to be willing to make quality sacrifices to produce high quality home work. If the reward is small, students will not be encouraged to sacrifice days to write one home work because reward will not worth the sacrifice.

You can also tell us what you enjoyed most, and what you learnt from the Academy.

What I enjoyed most in Steemit cryto academy is the knowledge and skill of cryptocurrency trading strategies I acquired from the seasoned professors. I am so excited about it.

Has the Academy inspired you to continue learning more about crypto subjects? If so, how and where have you extended your crypto learning?

Ooo yes! The exposure I got from the academy has made me to develop so much interest about cryptocurrency and I am so motivated to continue learning more and more about crypto subjects.

However, I have expanded my cryptocurrency learning to using youtube channels and google search to learn about the opportunities available in the world of cryptocurrency.

Has the Academy inspired you to start trading in crypto currencies? If so, which ones?

The academy has really inspired me to start cryptocurrency trading, although I have not yet started trading because I am still having some difficulties in the verification of my Binance account.

I have staked my TRX in Tronlink pro and I am saving money to start life trading using www.tradingview.com

Conclusion

I sincerely appreciate Steemit for coming up with this wonderful and life changing community. Steemit Crypto Academy has positively impacted so many lives and many people have become rich through this platform.

Also, I want to express my gratitude to Steemit Crypto Academy management team for giving us this wonderful opportunity to air our views. A very big thank you to you all.

Finally, I want to appeal that our views in this feedback should be duly considered more especially the issue of #club5050 rule.

Thank you very much for patiently reading my post and may the Almighty God continue to bless you all.