[C2VN]: Cardano developer courseware in Universities

[GENERAL] Name and surname of main applicant

Tien Nguyen Anh

[GENERAL] Are you delivering this project as an individual or as an entity (whether formally incorporated or not)

Entity (Not Incorporated)

[GENERAL] Co proposers and Additional applicants

Pham Van Khanh

Ngoc Dung Bui

[GENERAL] Please specify how many months you expect your project to last (from 2-12 months)

4

[GENERAL] Please indicate if your proposal has been auto-translated into English from another language.

No

[GENERAL] Summarize your solution to the problem (200-character limit including spaces)

We aim to create 02 coursewares: Fundamental blockchain and Cardano Blockchain for developers then we will implement these curriculums in the classroom as mainstream subjects in Universities.

[GENERAL] Does your project have any dependencies on other organizations, technical or otherwise?

No

[GENERAL] If YES, please describe what the dependency is and why you believe it is essential for your project’s delivery. If NO, please write “No dependencies.”

No dependencies

[GENERAL] Will your project’s output/s be fully open source?

Yes

[GENERAL] Please provide here more information on the open source status of your project outputs

all textbooks/slides/labs will be publiced on our github and website for other to reuse

[METADATA] SDG rating

4.c - By 2030, substantially increase the supply of qualified teachers, including through international cooperation for teacher training in developing countries, especially least developed countries and small island developing States

4.6 - By 2030, ensure that all youth and a substantial proportion of adults, both men and women, achieve literacy and numeracy

[SOLUTION] Please describe your proposed solution.

With close access to online/offline communities, universities we are seeing:

• IT students are the core force in developing Blockchain applications in the near future, however, there are currently no official, open educational resources (OER), standardized teaching materials on Blockchain in the University.
• Curriculum writing and approval are subject to the University's approval processes. It often takes time in some universities.
• With ~55K IT students graduating yearly, The expected shortage of human resources in IT- in Vietnam (need 530k- view data here), but students are equipped with limited blockchain knowledge, not meeting the human resource needs of Vietnam and the world.
• Becoming a programmer on the Cardano blockchain platform can be a barrier for many developers because Cardano utilizes Haskell/Plutus, which are less common programming languages, and the community of participants is relatively limited compared to other languages. New languages like Aiken, Plu-ts, and Opshin have recently been released, so it takes time and guidance for the community to become familiar with them. Other foundation blockchain documents are scattered in many places in the English language.
• There are other blockchain platforms such as NEAR, SOLANA, COSMOS that are investing in free programming teaching on their platforms to attract developers, but there is no mainstream courseware in Uni yet.

With the predicted shortage of human resources in the field of Information Technology in general, and specifically in blockchain, as well as the barriers to becoming a Cardano blockchain developer, we believe that a fresh approach is needed to attract developers from outside the Cardano ecosystem.

Problem-solving:

Project participants include a team of lecturers with many years of experience in teaching and writing specialized IT textbooks. Understand the process of creating and publishing textbooks in Universities to realize the publication of Blockchain textbooks and put them into practice.

The project team will collect open source courseware, standardize the curriculum and assign Trainers to attend training courses directly from Emurgo, Cardano Foundation. These participants will be key members in composing/translating courseware.

We will bring these textbooks into the teaching of students/developers, collect the feedback throughout the survey and improve the curriculum. On each chapter of the curriculum, the names of the authors, editors, and acknowledgments that this is the achievement of a project funded by Project Catalyst will be documented. This courseware will be published under open educational resources (OER) license.

Integrating the two courses (Fundamental Blockchain and Cardano Blockchain for Developers) into the curriculum will provide students with a close and friendly learning experience. They will receive guidance and support directly in the classroom where they have previously studied, attracting young and potential developers to the Cardano ecosystem.

Being designed as official courses, students who are interested, especially promising developers, will be motivated to engage with the materials and source code despite the difficulties. Once students become familiar with the Cardano ecosystem, they will bring their creative ideas and products to this platform. 

[IMPACT] Please define the positive impact your project will have on the wider Cardano community.

With the foresee challenges and solutions, we believe that the project will be completely suitable for the challenge because:

• Many students at the University have a desire to become proficient in programming on a blockchain platform. As the University does not currently offer a dedicated course, they often engage in free courses on platforms like NEAR, SOLANA, and BSC. This requires students to invest additional time and effort into learning without receiving recognition in their university profiles. The two courses (Fundamental Blockchain and Cardano Blockchain for Developers) will become official courses at the University. This will facilitate and encourage students' exploration and research. We believe this will be an excellent experience for students (promising developers), incentivizing them and leading to increased adoption, productivity, and creativity.
•  Teaching these two courses at two universities and making them available as open educational resources (OER) for other institutions to reference, along with the Train the Trainer model, we anticipate a large number of students in the first cohort and subsequent cohorts will be attracted to join the Cardano ecosystem.
• Designed as official courses, the curriculum will encompass both theoretical knowledge, practical exercises, and completion of assignments. This serves as both motivation and a challenge for developers at the university, keeping them motivated to persevere through the documentation and code, regardless of the difficulty. 

To measure the impact of the project, we considered these indicators:

1. Adoption and integration: The success can be measured by the number of universities that adopt the blockchain textbooks and integrate the courses into their curriculum.
2. Student enrollment: The success can also be assessed by the number of students enrolling in the blockchain courses. 
3. Feedback and improvement: The project team can gather feedback from experts, lecturers, students and other stakeholders involved in the implementation of the courses. 
4. Course materials: The teaching duration, video hours, number of course materials, and quiz/test will also be used by us to measure the success of the project.
5. Developer participation: The success of attracting developers to the Cardano ecosystem can be measured by monitoring the number of developers who actively engage with the Cardano platform after completing the courses. 
6. Recognition and acknowledgment: The acknowledgment of the project's achievement, This recognition demonstrates the impact and credibility of the project within the academic and blockchain communities. 

To share the outputs and results of our project, we have the following plans:

Project Reports (PoM and PoA): 

We will submit a Statement of Milestones (SoM) which will be published, reviewed and approved by Community Reviewers. In each Milestone, we will public Proof of Achievement (PoA) to provide evidence that the milestone for which we have already been paid has been achieved. 

Release outputs/results on our website

We will outputs/results on our website at C2VN and our github where interested individuals can access our update proactively. Discuss or query us any topics they prefer.

Share outputs/results to social platforms (Cardano Forum, Facebook, telegram, twitter, youtube and github):

These will be places we share updates, success stories, and best practices. These will allow us to reach a larger audience and gather feedback and suggestions from the community, fostering a collaborative approach to decentralized identity adoption

[CAPABILITY & FEASIBILITY] What is your capability to deliver your project with high levels of trust and accountability? How do you intend to validate if your approach is feasible?

1, Expertise and Experience:

The members of the project are the core team who organized the Community-Led Events Cardano Summit 2022 and Community-Led Events Cardano Summit 2023. We consist of technical experts from Cardano2vn.io and professors from 5 major universities.

(This is the picture of the summit)

We have been funded for 8 proposals (Fund6: 1, Fund7: 3, Fund8: 4) . All 8 projects have been successfully implemented, delivering impacts beyond expectations and marked as completed on IOG's tracking board . Here are some our activities we delivered for our community:

• Organizing 8 webinars on web3 and building web3 on the Cardano blockchain

(this is picture of our class)

• Supporting students in conducting scientific research on blockchain, building, and integrating their applications with Cardano
• Organizing and participating in “Together we learn Haskell”
• Introduce and promote Blockchain and AI research and development to Universities

• We are collaborating with Gimbalabs to bring the Gimbalabs PPBL2023 course to Vietnamese in our native language.

During the bear market, the project team regularly organized sharing sessions and networking events with universities, thereby collaborating with them to schedule both fundamental and advanced training. Below are some of the activities:

• Introduce Cardano and Project Catalyst at Nguyen Trai University
• Share oppotunies on Cardano and Project Catalyst for Students and lecture at ITI - National University, Hanoi
• Organizing 8 webinars on web3 and building web3 on the Cardano blockchain
• Cardano student showcases at Student Scientific and Research Conference at the University of Transport and Communications in Hanoi, Vietnam
• Promoting Blockchain, and AI research in universities

And we did deliver a initial course at a University as a sample case, here is our course’s outline and this event was posted on meetup 

In the current landscape, universities are yet to have an official blockchain curriculum, and the project team consisting of esteemed professors from various universities collaborating to develop the curriculum, along with the potential financial support from Project Catalyst, achieving the above goals is entirely feasible.

2, Accountability: 

• Metrics and Evaluation: We have established clear metrics and indicators to measure the success of our project. By regularly evaluating and reporting on these metrics, we hold ourselves accountable for delivering the desired outcomes. 
• Transparent and Open Approach: We prioritize transparency and open communication in all aspects of our project. We are committed to sharing progress updates, project plans, and outcomes with stakeholders, ensuring that everyone is informed and involved in the process.

Overall, our capability to deliver the project with high levels of trust and accountability lies in our expertise, transparent approach, and evaluation measures. We are committed to upholding these principles throughout the project lifecycle, ensuring that our efforts are reliable, trustworthy, and accountable to all stakeholders involved.

The main goals and KPI to validate the project will be as below:

1, Attract developers from outside of our current community to cardano ecosystem: 

To attract and motivate students, especially promising developers, to engage with Cardano Ecosystem. We anticipate that there will be at least 250 students enrolled for our courses. 100 developers participating in Catalyst in the first year. This number is expected to grow exponentially as the curriculum is referenced by more institutions in following years. 

2, Blockchain textbooks Adoption:

The collaboration of university lecturers in co-developing and implementing the curriculum as a formal teaching resource is a significant investment. It serves as the foundation for widespread knowledge adoption in subsequent years, and the number of developers participating in the Cardano ecosystem will rapidly increase in following years. In the first year, we are focusing on blockchain textbook adoption in 02 universities.

3, Release blockchain textbooks as open educational resources (OER): 

The two Blockchain textbooks will be shared as open educational resources (OER). This ensures transparency and addresses the urgent need for blockchain curriculum in Universities, reducing the time required for program development, approval, gathering materials, and writing curriculum for other institutes . This will accelerate the development of blockchain resources and shorten the lead time to Cardano Blockchain adoption.

4, Build a scalable model.

We will form a train-the-trainer team to ensure the scalability of teaching across multiple universities and training for future courses. We anticipate that there will be 06 instructors serving as trainers.

[Project Milestones] What are the key milestones you need to achieve in order to complete your project successfully?

The detailed breakdown of our project’s milestones and activities is avalable at this Google doc

Milestone 1: First month

Key activities:

• Organized a scientific conference demonstrating the need to include blockchain in the academic curriculum for university students.
• Compiling a list of reference materials(books, documents, videos...) of Fundamental blockchain and Cardano Blockchain for developers for translators to consult (with the reference from Cardano Education program and Emurgo Academy) 
• Conduct internal discussions to collectively study the materials.
• Setting standards of knowledge and skills for students when successfully completing the blockchain module.
• Project management (planning, organizing, and controlling resources, tasks, and activities to achieve specific project goals)

Acceptance criteria:

• Meeting minutes of the scientific conference (photo, number of attendee, meeting notes)
• A comprehensive list of relevant books, documents, and videos is compiled.
• The draft notes on unclear points, information to be supplemented, and comments of each member regarding the discussed topics.
• Clear and specific standards for knowledge and skills are defined, The standards are aligned with the course objectives.

Second month

Key activities:

• Write a detailed outline of the syllabus for both courses. a tentative outline we have specifie as this document. It continues to be updated

• Assign editing modules to team members
• Creating textbooks/slides
• Creating questions and exercises/labs
• Reviewing the textbooks/slides/labs
• Project management (planning, organizing, and controlling resources, tasks, and activities to achieve specific project goals)

Acceptance criteria:

• 02 outlines of 02 courses
• The work allocation table for drafting two coursewares.
• The initial version of textbooks/slides/ exercises/labs
• A document summarizing the feedbacks from the expert council.

Third month

Key activities:

• Updating the textbooks/slides/labs from review's findings 
• Organize 02 Seminars, workshops to evaluate the textbooks/slides/labs
• Submit the textbooks/slides/labs for approval from Universities
• Consolidating feedbacks and update the textbooks/slides/labs
• Promoting the course, open for enrollment for the first University
• Project management (planning, organizing, and controlling resources, tasks, and activities to achieve specific project goals)

Acceptance criteria:

• The update version of 02 coursewares.
• 02 Seminars are held up with meeting notes.
• A record of feedbacks on the textbooks/slides/labs
• The approval from Universities for applying these courses in teaching.
• Enrollment letter.

Fourth month (final Milestone)

Key activities:

• Delivery courses as subjects at the first University (funded by University)
• Collect Net promoter scores from students (developers) and feedback from teachers
• Reviewing and update courseware after the 1st delivery
• Public the courseware as a open educational resources (1st version)
• Support students in writing, submitting proposals in Project Catalyst and adopting their application in to Cardano Ecosystem 
• Promoting the course, open for enrollment for the second University
• Conduct Train the trainer training
• Create completion report and video

Deliverables

• Pictures and Recording of delivery the lectures at University
• A record of feedback and Net promoter scores
• A revision of 02 coursewares.
• Courseware could be retrieved from the public thru the github link
• Train the trainer course is organize with pictures in the course and evidence recording
• Completion report and video.

[RESOURCES] Who is in the project team and what are their roles?

Our core team member are:

Nguyen Anh Tien

Role: Project Manager, Product Owner, Blockchain Developer

Bio: the founder of the VILAI stake pool, and a computer science expert working in the Cardano/Crypto space since 2018. Cardano Ambassador, Funded Proposer, member of Plutus, Atala Prism Pioneer Program, a Challenge Team member and Co-host for Eastern Town Hall.

• LinkedIn
• Twitter
• Telegram

Hoang Van Thong

Role: Curriculum Quality Assurance Officer

Bio: Lecturer (since 2001) and Dean of Faculty of Information Technology (since 2020), University of Transportation and Communications, computer science experts, developed many websites

• Fields research: fuzzy logic, soft computing, data mining, machine learning.
• LinkedIn
• Email: thonghv@utc.edu.vn
• Facebook

Cao Thi Luyen,

Role: Curriculum Development member

Bio: Lecturer (since 2001) of the Faculty of Information Technology, University of Transportation and Communications, received a Ph.D. in mathematical assurance in computational systems at the military academy of science and technology (since 2018). developed many applications.

• Fields research: watermarking, data hiding, machine learning, blockchain. 
• LinkedIn
• Email: luyenct@utc.edu.vn 

Mai Manh Trung

Role: Curriculum Development member

Bio: Lecturer (since 2007) and Dean of Faculty of Information Technology (since 2004), University of Economic and Industry, computer science expert.

• Fields research: Security, application programing, data mining, machine learning.
• Email: mmtrung@uneti.edu.vn

Ngoc Dung Bui

Role: Curriculum Development member

• Senior researcher in AI and computer vision
• Senior lecturer at Information Technology, University of Transport and Communications, Vietnam
• 16 years experience in AI
• https://scholar.google.com.vn/citations?user=zxiSmOAAAAAJ&hl=en

Pham Van Khanh, Dr.

Role: Curriculum Development member

Bio: Lecturer at Military Technical Academy, Hanoi, Vietnam.

• Scientific Research profile

[BUDGET & COSTS] Please provide a cost breakdown of the proposed work and resources.

The detailed breakdown of our project’s milestones and activities is avalable at this Google doc.it is summarized here for your quick reference.

Milestone1: First month - 22333 ADA = 15,26%

Milestone2: 2nd Month - 43200 ADA = 29,52%

Milestone3: 3rd Month - 43733 ADA = 29,89%

Milestone4 (Final Milestone): Fourth Month - 37067 ADA = 25,33%

Total: 146.333 ADA

[VALUE FOR MONEY] How does the cost of the project represent value for money for the Cardano ecosystem?

We have full confidence that the project represents value for money for the Cardano ecosystem, based on the following contributions:

• The project has attracted developers from outside to the Cardano ecosystem.
• By organizing structured courses, the participating developers are acknowledged, encouraged, and incentives throughout the training. 
• The project's organizational model is scalable to meet future development needs.
• The quality of the courses is ensured by dedicated personnel within the project team.
• The hourly rate is set at a reasonable range, between $30 to $40 per hour. The exchange rate used is reasonable." 

It will drive effectively ecosystem growth, foster education and community initiatives, expand Cardano’s global footprint and onboard more Cardano users. Furthermore, It aims to target education and adoption, two of the three key focus areas of the Cardano Foundation in 2023.

[IMPORTANT NOTE] The Applicant agrees to Fund Rules and also that data in the submission form and other data provided by the project team during the course of the project will be publicly available.

I Accept