OnChainUniversity - Free Education

[IMPACT]

We plan to scale out the current beta platform with learning courses, focusing primarily on Cardano and Ethereum as well as other primary chains. We will build out a diverse set of courses for a range of learners that covers primary development activities supported by blockchain technology as well as cross-chain collaboration.

Users / investors

• Blockchain concepts
• Blockchain economic concepts
• How to use X blockchain (specifics per chain)
• How to DYOR

Projects

• How to write a white paper
• Managing a discord server/community
• Marketing basics
• DAO basics

Developers

• How to Move an EVM project to Cardano
• Cross-chain interoperability
• X language basics (specifics per chain)
• X language Advanced (specifics per chain)
• X Security basics (specifics per chain)
• X DAPP basics (specifics per chain)

Youth Programs

• Wallet creation
• Programming basics
• Web 2 & design
• Web 3
• App development
• NFT art creation

In a word, we want to normalize the presence of spaces where learners from various chains can work together in the spirit of learning and creativity. Through our team's skillset, we will promote a culture which holds collaboration as its primary ethos.

1) We first want to emphasize that the courses are free to all and do not necessarily promote any single chain. Anyone at any stage in their learning can access these courses.

2) Learners may come to the site to learn more about their chosen chain, but our course offerings provide a chance to expose them to learners from other chains as well as sample course offerings for other chains with no barriers or risk.

3) Our course offerings include blockchain concepts and tools that are not necessarily chain-specific. Therefore, learners with investment in a diverse set of chains will be able to learn alongside each other as well as interact regarding their learning in a specific Discord channel.

4) Our course offerings also include cross-chain collaboration as a specific topic. We are cultivating course material from instructors who can demonstrate the current use-cases for cross-chain collaboration as well as future uses.

5) We believe in the power of great teachers and the influence of a community of learners. We know from experience that when people gather to share with each other and learn in earnest, they come away with new perspectives. In reference to this challenge, that means a new viewpoint the efficacy of a chain they had not yet understood.

6) Our programming will also encourage students to collaborate on discord as well as to present at special exhibitions that will feature student findings, development, and projects. Therefore, students will be able to collaborate and witness collaboration with users from other chains in real time.

7) Our program includes youth programming as well as learning for adult users. We believe that supporting youth in learning blockchain now will continue to normalize blockchain as a foundational web3 development tool.

Challenge: Cryptocurrency communities and developers can be fiercely committed to their chosen blockchain.

Strategy: By offering an inclusive, free, and inquiry-based approach for communities to share, consider, and learn new practices and multi-chain development opportunities, we are simply presenting a resource that does not ask anything of the participant other than to consider the benefits of such building opportunities, an approach that does not demand allegiance or risk-exposure.

Challenge: We have competitors in online education

Strategy: While we recognize that our idea of free education--and blockchain education--are not new, we believe we offer something new: among our competitors we are positioning ourselves as an entirely free, high-quality, blockchain focused, vetted educational platform. For a closer analysis, please refer to https://onchainuniversity.com/market-positioning/

Challenge: Crypto and blockchain can be overwhelming for new users

Strategy: Sites like bitdegree overwhelm with paid content whose design features and imagery saturate the user with content that does not offer a clear learning pathway forward, and suggests that access to significant blockchain knowledge is pay-to-play. As a team that includes a seasoned education consultant, we know that the best learning happens when accessibility as well as usability present a clear, accessible path for students. With a clean design and UX, we intend to simplify as well as de-monetize the experience of learning about unfamiliar concepts, whether that be setting up a wallet or learning about cross-chain use-cases.

Challenge: Putting multi-chain users in conversation with each other

Strategy: Our courses will all be linked to a discussion platform--currently the crypto-friendly platform discord--where students can interact and ask questions of course instructors as well as each other. We will also tap instructors to develop project-based and inquiry-based learning, a meaningful learning tool that asks students to enact their learning in tangible ways and present them to their classmates. This will allow students from various chains to exchange ideas with each other and their instructor as well as opportunities to forge partnerships.

Challenge: Sustainability of funding

Strategy: First, we are in the process of developing a nonprofit for web2 crowdfunding as well as an NFT sale crowdfund which will include the contributions of multi-chain creators (e.g. Cardano and Ethereum). We believe that the Cardano community will rally around this opportunity with support including well-known stake pools, developers, and NFT creators. We also know that this site will be an attractive investment because of our focus on youth programming. Support for STEM programming for young people has agreed-upon value internationally. In addition, we are currently researching educational business and STEM grants that will be willing to engage with our ideas for education in the crypto community. Our team is looking forward to utilizing our business experience and educational consulting experience. For our grant proposals we will be able to articulate our plans for the sustainability of this program as well as the necessity and value of education. In this way, we will be able to continue our necessary work after the initial generosity of Catalyst.

Challenge: Sustainability of excellent programming

Strategy: To initially promote the site as well as acquire quality instructors and courses, we have budgeted to entice established teachers to the site through an honorarium for their services. We will then be able to promote the site's credibility through these instructors' contributions. Simultaneously, we will be recruiting instructors by relying on our long-term sustainability plan. Our first contributor to the site is a YouTube instructor with 2.6 million followers. We know that there is incentive to share in our mission among instructors with a depth of knowledge and talent for teaching. Additionally, we will vet course instruction and provide strong app-based resources for effective virtual teaching, such as the resources found here.

Challenge: Students will want their participation incentivized and/or accredited

Strategy: We know that students will want to demonstrate their learning as well as have that learning recognized and accredited. We are investigating the use of Atala PRISM as a method for learning verification. We will also hold exhibitions of student work to allow students to present their development/findings/projects to students and teachers (as well as a potential market). The use of a native token is also under exploration as an incentives-based approach.

Challenge: Learners and instructors are connecting globally, and to connect them requires accessibility features not limited to language translation, visual and hearing impairment, and, with all educational pursuits, learning modifications.

Strategy: Through our expertise in tech development and instructional best practices, we intend to build out accessibility-focused modifications to meet the needs all instructors and learners. We plan to remove all barriers to successful learning through contemporary best practices in the field of education.

[FEASIBILITY]

Milestones

Completed

• Initial website launch
• Onboard first instructors
• Form core team
• Road map creation
• Competitor analysis
• Sustainability model

In progress

• Developing partnerships
• Onboarding new Instructors
• Onboarding new students
• Developing train the trainer material

Planned

• Skills based Certification partnerships
• Investigate Atala Prism use cases
• Community development
• UI UX improvements
• Sponsored course creation
• Testing and assessment methods
• Live instructor events

Timeline

3 Months

• 80 Students on-boarded
• 15 Instructors on-boarded
• 1,000 Twitter followers
• Sponsored course creation
• Train the trainer program released
• Regular live instructor events

6 Months

• 220 Students on-boarded
• 25 Instructors on-boarded
• 2,000 Twitter followers
• Community NFT fundraising campaign
• Freemium contingency if needed
• Testing and assessment best practices in place

9 Months

• 400 Students on-boarded
• 40 Instructors on-boarded
• 4,000 Twitter followers
• New and improved UI UX
• Skills based Certification partnerships

• Instructors creating courses - $11k (173 hours @$65ph)

To curate excellent content, we will solicit well-known, talented instructors and developers with

an honorarium for their services. While we know that we will have strong contributors who wish

to create courses pro bono, we want to be able to attract talent and develop partnerships with

many instructors from a variety of chains in the initial phase of our

development.

• Web design $5k (78 hours @$65ph)

• Community management $5k (78 hours @$65ph)

• Educational consultant $5k (78 hours @$65ph)

Raymond Visser is a student from the Netherlands who has been studying accounting for four years. After being part of the Cardano Community for over a year he made the switch to study IT. With certificates in marketing, business and Chinese language, he proved to be eager about topics of his interests.

• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/visser-raymond/
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/Halasz_raymond

Peter Mishler is an award-winning educator and author. A veteran teacher and advocate for public education in the U.S., he has three times been named Teacher of the Year at schools in multiple states. He is the author of For All You Do: Self-Care and Encouragement for Teachers as well as the Kathryn A. Morton Prize-winning poetry collection Fludde. He writes and will soon mint CNFT music as c a p r i c o r n s, a Cardano “inDe” rock outfit. He tweets about the @CNFTAudio community @capricornsfuzz.

• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/peter-mishler-21287b233/
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/capricornsfuzz

Oliver Ross

In my 9-5 life, I'm the head of ICT product management in a Managed Services Provider (MSP). I have a background of working with multinational enterprises finding solutions for their IT needs. In my free time, I'm an active investor in traditional Stocks & ETFs, and an economics nerd who listens to too many podcasts. In the Cardano space I do:

• Creator of: https://cardanomakers.com/
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/1OliverRoss
• Content at: https://www.scatdao.com/team
• Editor at: https://medium.com/cardano-journal
• Writer at: https://articles.wholegraintech.com/
• Team at: https://sealsociety.io/

[AUDITABILITY]

Progress

Continuous funding, increased enrollment, and an expansion of course offerings and programs will indicate that we have made progress in developing a viable project for the cryptocurrency marketplace.

Progress on on our core elements like courses, instructors, community engagement will all be publicly accessible but we will make monthly progress reports with source data to show the community the results.

Goal 1 (3 Months)

• 80 Students on-boarded
• 15 Instructors on-boarded
• 1,000 Twitter followers

Goal 2 (6 Months)

• 220 Students on-boarded
• 25 Instructors on-boarded
• 2,000 Twitter followers

Goal 3 (9 Months)

• 400 Students on-boarded
• 40 Instructors on-boarded
• 4,000 Twitter followers

To host an exhibition of students' development/projects to demonstrate the efficacy of the site, potential use-cases for cross-chain collaboration, and to allow students and teachers to discuss each others' work in real time.

Goal 4 (12 Months)

By the end of 12 months, we will have enacted our web2 and web3 crowdfunding and/or contingency funding plan to sustain our first wave of funding.

Development

Our team will continually research new use-cases for cross-chain collaboration and seek excellent instruction from experts in that use-case.

Our team will continually recruit high-level educators to develop courses.

Our engagement with users and instructors will be essential in modifying course offerings and user-experience toward these current goals.

Our team will continually develop, refine, and sustain our method for student-teacher interaction through discord channels and any other outlets/apps course instructors choose to use.

We will survey enrollees who have interacted with at least one course as well as all instructors to improve the user-experience and course offerings.

Our team will make modifications to user-experience and offerings based on this feedback.

Our team will also oversee the presentation and delivery of materials to determine their educational efficacy and viability for users.

Our team will continually research and apply for funding as well as crowdfunding as well as our contingency freemium plan, if needed.

Our team will forge partnerships with other e-learning platforms to analyze and establish effective practices for delivering educational materials as well as ensuring user success.

Our team will seek out a viable method for accrediting users' coursework.

Our team will create and sustain an exhibition-like space for students to present findings/development/projects to other uses.

User expansion: an increase in cross-chain participation through the development of courses relevant to a variety of cryptocurrencies and topics.

User participation: active participation in courses on discord as well as in exhibition presentations, particularly in the area of cross-chain collaboration courses/programs of study

User accreditation: a viable accreditation source using blockchain technology, potentially https://atalaprism.io/

Course expansion: an increase in course offerings including intermediate and advanced-level courses

Talent expansion: attracting instructors with significant blockchain/cryptocurrency experience

Retention of users: Return-users who seek out additional content from the site

Accessibility for users and teachers: our course offerings will feature a wide-array of cryptocurrency/blockchain education that is accessible to all users regardless of ability.

Impact: our team will track students through follow-up interviews and surveys to determine how they have implemented their learning

Funding: continuous, sustainable funding through our web2 and web3 crowdfunding, grant-writing, and possible contingency plan.

New proposal