My Thoughts on SEC Season 20
The Engagement Challenge Season 20 is quite a whizz. Although it needs some rebranding as it's more of an academia now than an engagement contest. Besides users, Steemit team also seems to be thrilled about this new project.
The emphasis on the Teaching Teams is deliberate as we believe this could become a USP for Steem.
I am impressed by the variety of courses and the efforts the teachers are putting into each lesson. If time allows, I am very much tempted to upgrade and learn some new skills myself. Who wouldn't? When such courses and one-to-one feedback from the teachers themselves cost you hundreds of bucks on other online or offline academic websites or institutions.
The beauty of these courses (besides the obvious, they're free) is that you get rewarded for your hardwork along with the teacher and the blockchain will ensure these courses stay here forever so that anyone can come back and learn something without the need to enroll and meet a deadline.
Having said that, I have a few concerns which I wanted to share here but have been rethinking and mainly procrastinating. I will come straight to the point now...
Let's not forget that Steemit is a social media platform. Each user has a different purpose here. The most common examples are:
- Earning
- Building
- Learning
- Recreational
This platform must cater to the diverse needs of its users. As much as I want to learn a new skill, my current frame of mind only wants to use Steemit for relaxing and recreational purposes. A few weeks later, I might feel more focused and would want to open and catch up on a course, or a few decades later, I might feel like knitting sweaters for my grandkids, and then I wouldn't have to worry because I can simply follow the free knitting course on Steem. ;-)
These lessons are precious knowledge that needs to be preserved. Ok, it's on the blockchain; it's already written on stone. What I mean is, it should be easily accessible at all times - now and 20 years later.
At the same time, it shouldn't scare users who are not here for educational purposes. A developer who comes home after his 9-5 wouldn't want to unwind browsing mundane posts like SEC Dev Homework XYZ.
Most likely, it doesn't bother highly career-oriented people, but there are always some people (possibly more) who come online to declutter their brains and disconnect from their real lives.
Solution?
Continue these educational courses but maybe dedicate a community to this kind of content like Steem Academy where all the lessons are catalogued subject-wise. Steemitblog could also post their weekly announcements in that community.
Benefit?
- Courses will be organized and easily accessible.
Now this doesn't solve the problem of seeing SEC Engagement Challenge XYZ titled 5 homework posts in a row on my feed. If I'm to learn a skill, naturally, I would only be interested in the teacher's lesson, not in the dozen homework posts, unless the nature of the course makes me want to check what others have done and discuss something (engage) under their posts.
Solution?
I am thinking as I write... How about students do their homework off-chain (Google Docs) and share the link under the parent (lesson) post in a comment? The teacher could leave feedback as a reply to the comments and the curators can reward the students and teachers on their link submission and feedback comments.
This will keep the feed clean of template posts.
Drawback?
Reduction in new posts since most of the content shared on Steem is related to contests. But I think it's better to prioritize diversity and quality than having monotonous content being published here. Students and teachers can still be rewarded all the same.
That's all I could think of. I'm not 100% sure of the viability of this idea. It's just a suggestion that I openly want to discuss here. Your input might stem better solutions.
I will start my comment with: I am not criticizing, and of course, I acknowledge the hard work and thought put into these courses.
I think, Steemit thrives as a platform where users engage in community-driven content, often focused on creative, personal, or niche topics. Courses on highly specialized subjects might not get the engagement they deserve on Steemit because users come to explore more practical, relatable, or entertaining content. While academic posts like those on hematology or anemia are valuable in an educational setting, they may not resonate with Steemit’s diverse audience. Content that is too technical or purely academic can feel out of place, especially when the platform’s appeal lies in more conversational or creative posts.
It's not that academic topics aren't suitable; it's about how the content is delivered. Again, I think that Steemit works best for content that sparks interaction and community engagement, and some academic posts might not hit that mark unless they're tailored to fit the platform's interactive and informal style...
That's of course my opinion and I can be 100 percent wrong!
Before writing this post, I had a good look at the homework posts and I did notice low engagement. So, you are right that educational content could mean less interaction.
Taking this development (lower interaction) into account, I raised the point of catering to diverse users of the platforms, hence the suggestion of a separate environment for education.
Just separate, not ditch it or make steem all about it. I think we need to choose a middle ground.
I'm positive about the success of these courses though. I'm sure there are ghost students who are benefiting from these courses, only they are not doing homework conventionally (It could very much be me).
Yes, something like this...
And also if we could make them a little less formal! The grading and all... But then again there must be a thought that went into it!
Not perfectly related, but I just want to get this out now...
Not only the author is misled here, it feels as if the mods/reps who promote this witness are also hoping to get the witness's support (afterall he's reputable and has a good stake).
I'm sure most users are doing it just because others are doing it. Leaving this promotional template at the end of one's own posts is one thing but in grading comments it gives a wrong desperate impression... All respect for pennsif, but I don't know how this campaign started and I do wonder if he gets annoyed with these unnecessary mentions (you would know this).
There are some other ridiculous trends which also bug me a lot but I think that comes in the package of a free platform. No?
Sshh, don't give ideas. 🤫
I don't want to quit. 😅
Personally, I really like the content that the SEC produces. These are well-researched articles that are definitely valuable. I think the Steemit team is doing the right thing by using their resources to create something like this.
However, I agree that Steemit doesn't have to be just academic. There is a place for entertainment, diaries and live communication. The downside is that we only have one big player who is interested in community and blockchain development. No matter where the Steemit team directs its resources, it will not be enough and someone will be left without support.
I like this idea of yours. At the same time, various courses can attract new readers to Steemit, but for this they need to be found in a Google search. Publishing such courses in some community will worsen their indexing by search engines. This has already been said several times. In short, I don't know how to make things better 😄
There were teaching teams in the past too if I'm correctly recalling. But this time the bar is higher.
It's not about who's left without support. But yeah, users run where there's a better chance of big votes, naturally, even if their interests lie somewhere else. It's not a complain but I just hope this doesn't deprive steem of diversity.
The only solution that came to my mind was to regulate this project in a dedicated space. Something along the lines of how SCA operated few years ago.
Regarding the problem of poor search engine rankings of community content... I'm hopeful our devs would be able to fix that someday.
The idea of a Community specifically for courses can be tried out. However, I think that Steemit's current range of functions would set limits: a table of contents with a search function would be the first unrealistic expectation...
I also find thematically categorised Communities with corresponding educational offers on their main topics more logical.
However, we agree that these new formats should be expanded and enhance the content of Steemit. I myself am thinking about some topics for which there is little to no valid information online - I don't have the time yet, but the day will come... ;-))
It could just be a pinned post with links to all courses which can be categorized thematically or chronically.
Already curious. 🙂