Wada Academy for Haskell Devs

[GENERAL] Summarize your solution to the problem.

Create an online, self-paced, modular learning environment for Haskell and Plutus developers to improve their skills, in a multitude of languages.

[GENERAL] Summarize your relevant experience.

Cardano-based community network of 25+ professionals focused on connecting the world to Africa using blockchain and AI. 20+ funded proposals with strong partnerships within the Catalyst ecosystem. A trusted source for both Africa-based projects and wider ecosystem contributions.

[GENERAL] Requested funds in USD.

[IMPACT] Please describe your proposed solution.

Main deliverable:

An online learning environment that can host self-paced, modular educational courses, with the first course being suited towards training new Haskell developers.

Project Brief:

The purpose of this education platform is to achieve two main objectives:

• Connect the various educational courses in production across the Wada ecosystem.
• Provide users with a better learning experience, beyond watching the courses on Youtube.

Youtube is not the ideal method of distributing educational content given there is:

• No access to individual user data.
• No way of tracking individual progress.
• No way of gaining insights into future course interest (outside of a survey link or poll)
• No way of gamifying or customizing the experience.

Tech Stack:

Wada Academy will utilize a TutorLMS integration for a V1 implementation of modular courses and quiz capabilities on a Wordpress backend.

• WordPress CMS: https://wordpress.org/
• Custom front end
• Email marketing: https://activecampaign.com
• LMS: https://www.themeum.com/tutor-lms

Marketing Strategy:

• Developer events and workshops: Wada hosting regular developer workshops which will direct attendees towards Wada Academy (WA) onboarding.
• Content: Distributing newsletters, guides and
• Partnerships: Working with schools and universities to provide resources to STEM students to either learn programming, or develop their existing skills into a functional programming orientation.
• Ads: A limited run of ad campaigns with the purpose of email capture and market research.

Unique Elements:

• Mobile-friendly: We have seen multiple examples of MOOCs that use a desktop-only interface, which requires contact zooming in and out while on a mobile device. Quality user experience is at the core of engagement, so a mobile-first design principle will be in place.
• Gamified: A new approach to better engage students and life-long learners.
• Inclusive: Multiple languages will be offered as part of each program, depending on capacity and funding,

Future Use Cases:

• Wider appeal of the platform beyond Haskell.
• Project-based learning.
• Learn-to-earn features with wallet integrations.
• Game-based learning and embedded gamification through a custom platform solution.

[IMPACT] Please describe how your proposed solution will address the Challenge that you have submitted it in.

This proposal addresses the need to equip Cardano developers with the tools and environment they require in order to build on top of Cardano. Providing a learning environment acts as both a community building project and a resource for continual improvement.

Secondly, it will also increase the number of developers actively building on Cardano, by way of acting as a funnel into the wider ecosystem.

[IMPACT] What are the main risks that could prevent you from delivering the project successfully and please explain how you will mitigate each risk?

Course quality: Wada has access to seasoned Haskell programmers, Plutus Pioneers and professional teachers. Education lies at the core of Wada's offering to the Cardano community, so a high standard is likely to be met.

Platform adoption: Leveraging Wada's existing network of 200+ Cardano enthusiasts and developers will mean that adoption will be reached with a higher probability than a new entrant to the market.

Financial sustainability: There exist two scenarios, not mutually exclusive, that will ensure sustainability for the platform and its operators.

• Catalyst Support Model: A continued application to Catalyst, either for specific courses, features or integrations.
• Freemium Model: An industry standard within MOOCs and other educational platforms of a premium-tier service at cost to the individual or sponsoring institution.

[FEASIBILITY] Please provide a detailed plan, including timeline and key milestones for delivering your proposal.

Roadmap: (After successful funding)

First 30 Days:

• Market research conducted into the developer space and target audience.
• UX & Design completed.
• Landing page completed.

3 months:

• Integrations completed.
• First courses edited and uploaded.

6 months: 

• Quizzes and additional features added.
• Build complete.
• Soft launch with a pilot group of 10 students.
• Marketing campaign launched for waitlist signups.

12 months:

• Retrospective and feedback gathered from pilot group.
• Full public launch.

Beyond:

• Additional courses and features added.
• Custom build solution with wallet integration.
• Learn-to-earn capability.

Workload Management:

Wada runs several projects in parallel, aided by it's network and partners to deliver on multiple proposals. A new approach to managing proposal completion is to institute a new project manager for each funded proposal, and ensure that each project manager does not have more than 3 funded proposals to deliver on at any time

[FEASIBILITY] Please provide a detailed budget breakdown.

Budget:

• Team fees: $10000
• Project & Community Management: $4800 ($400x12) (0.25 FTE)
• Curriculum Development & User Experience: $3000
• Education & Enrollment Officer: $4800 ($400x12) (0.25 FTE)
• Website & Software: $7000
• Video & Editing: $3000
• Marketing & Design: $10000
• Social media & Content: $3000
• Translation, Transcription & Voice Services: $2000
• Market Research & Data Analysis: $1000

Total Budget: $48,600

[FEASIBILITY] Please provide details of the people who will work on the project.

Josh F - Project Lead + Global Lead @ Wada

An active Catalyst member since Fund 2, 6x challenge setter, stakepool operator and funded proposer. Josh will be overseeing the successful implementation of this project.

https://linkedin.com/in/joshfielding

Megan Hess - Education & Events Lead @ Wada, Co-Lead @ Wada Cameroon (DITC), Math & Physics teacher, bilingual (French & English).

https://www.linkedin.com/in/megan-hess-5b853292

Frédéric Samvura (Genty) - Business Initiatives Lead @ Wada, DRC Coordinator @ Wada, Core Contributor @ Gimbalabs.

M.A in Economics, experienced in banking and public policy. Completed the Plutus Pioneer and Atala Prism Pioneer Programs. Haskell and Plutus trainer in Wada and Gimbalabs Education programs, Smart Contract Developer and entrepreneur.

Felicien Fotio Manfo - Co-Lead & Senior Software Artitect @ Wada Cameroon (DITC)

Senior software architect & developer, 12+ year of experience programming, 3+ years in functional programming paradigm (F#, Haskell, Elm), Multilingual (French, English, Italian, Ngiembo). Manfo will be leading the course creation and curriculum development for this proposal.

https://www.linkedin.com/in/felicienfotiomanfo1642a479

Didier Nkalla Ehaw - Senior Software Developer @ Wada Cameroon (DITC)

Senior software architect & developer, 12+ year of experience programming, 3+ years in functional programming paradigm (Haskell), Mathematics teacher (Education Systems Engineering), Multilingual (French, Italian, English, Mbo). Didier will be supporting Manfo in the course creation and curriculum development.

https://www.linkedin.com/in/didier-junior-nkalla-ehaw%C3%A9-2a40a463

Richmond Oppong- Marketing & Design Lead @ Wada

Richmond is a graphic designer with over 10 years of experience in logo designs, print and poster designs, business card designs, 3D signage, and mounting billboards. He holds a Higher National Diploma in Graphic Design from Takoradi Polytechnic, Takoradi-Ghana. Richmond is a blockchain enthusiast and is actively part of the Cardano project catalyst community.

https://www.linkedin.com/in/richmond-oppong-054689b4

Daniel Dezu - Website Lead @ Wada

Daniel is a Front End web developer. He holds Bachelors of Science in Information Technology from Bluecrest College and Professional Diploma in Software Engineering from IPMC Ghana. He is passionate about Cloud computing, Cyber Security and Decentralized Applications. He was a Community Advisor in Catalyst fund 7 and Catalyst Challenge Team Lead for ‘Scale-UP Cardano’s Community Hubs’ challenge settings for fund 8. He envisioned using Blockchain Technology to bridge the gap between human capabilities and machine learning (AI & IoT).

https://www.linkedin.com/in/daniel-david-lezu-7ba04b24/

+ Wada network and advisors - https://www.wada.org/about-us

Additional Talent:

Wada will be working closely with its Cameroon Hub (@ditcameroon) in order to create and package the Haskell course for developers. They will also be sourcing an additional talent to work alongside Megan as both project manager and an enrollment officer, assisting to manage onboarding, community building and project delivery.

[FEASIBILITY] If you are funded, will you return to Catalyst in a later round for further funding? Please explain why / why not.

After successful funding, a future application may be made, in the case where an extended functionality is required, or a custom build is appropriate.

[FEASIBILITY] Are you or any member of your team working on any other proposals in this Fund9?

[FEASIBILITY] Are you or your team working on any other proposals from previous Funds?

[AUDITABILITY] Please describe what you will measure to track your project's progress, and how will you measure these?

Key Metrics:

• No. developers enrolled in Wada Academy
• % completion rate for course enrollees.
• Avg. watch time per session.
• Website analytics:
• Daily/Weekly traffic.
• Avg. page visit time duration.
• Avg. no. pages visited per session.
• Net Promoter Score (NPS)

Data will be made available to the Cardano community on the Wada website.

[AUDITABILITY] What does success for this project look like?

What success looks like:

Developers and students will have an easy-to-use, mobile-friendly solution to learning Haskell, Plutus and other technical subjects. They will be able to finish their learning journey with a clear view of the resources available in the Cardano ecosystem to build their projects, as well as find other collaborators.

Wada is aiming to onboard 50 developers onto the Wada Academy platform within its first 12 months of public launch.

[AUDITABILITY] Please provide information on whether this proposal is a continuation of a previously funded project in Catalyst or an entirely new one.

This is a new proposal, with connections to several previously funded proposals, as well as other Fund 9 submissions.

Affiliated Proposals:

• Web3 Education DAO by Wada
• Wada Internships for African Students

Extra Resources:

• Online Haskell Course (Example): https://www.seas.upenn.edu/~cis194/spring13/lectures.html
• Here, we can see an example of the desktop-first approach to front-end design, which can prove challenging for mobile users to navigate.

-------------

Interested in contributing or partnering? Get in touch today by contacting team@wada.org