Cardano 101 Course - Kaizen Crypto

[IMPACT] Please describe your proposed solution.

What Are We Building?

The Cardano 101 course will provide a resource for formatted content that can help new users learn about the Cardano ecosystem at their own pace. By curating a resource for education that is broken into steps, new users can understand different parts about Cardano in their own learning style. The project is intended to engage individuals who have heard about Cardano, but don’t know where to get started. It will benefit anyone who needs help understanding concepts such as creating a wallet, public and private keys, NFTs, DEFI, smart contracts, and other blockchain terminology. Our implementation will consist of video content that will be hosted on a dedicated website. Along with the video content, users will also be able to follow along with text documents and related links. Our aim is to produce a high-quality and engaging course that walks users through the various elements of being apart of the Cardano ecosystem. The result of this work will be that thousands of new users coming into the Cardano ecosystem will have a credible source of information that will help them feel confident in their ability to navigate the Cardano landscape.

Why Is This Needed?

Education is one of the most crucial elements to success in any field. Crypto is no different! With a well-formatted and structured source of information, members of the Cardano ecosystem will have a guide to show them what they need to know to achieve their goals.

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

How Is This Solution Addressing The Challenge?

This proposal aligns with the Challenge category as it provides a resource of information to help onboard new users. Many projects in the ecosystem are building very valuable tools. We need a well-formatted resource for education to introduce new users to these projects and tools.

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

Our team has accounted for multiple possibilities of potential setbacks. We are open to suggestions from the community on any additional risks and any mitigation strategies we should consider to increase the success of this project.

Risk:

• Friction with traditional course hosting infrastructure.

Solution:

• By leveraging the Kaizen Crypto brand, several community members who are very knowledgeable with long-form NFT content could potentially help with course creation on the blockchain (The Alexandria Project, DripDropz, etc)

Risk:

• Market volatility and ADA price volatility.

Solution:

• Funds will be allocated to a transparent wallet and held as USDC or DJED stablecoin.

Risk:

• Lack of understanding from users of how to use the platform

Solution:

• We have addressed this issue by dedicating specific content that will walk users through the entire process of being able to interact with the platform.

Our team is dedicated to open communication and being inclusive and transparent with our community.

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

Steps we will take to implement development of Cardano 101 Course

1. Curate a list of titles for video topics
2. Breakdown each title into subtopics 
3. Research relevant projects and media sources for each subtopic
4. Create a script for each subtopic 
5. Record video content for each script related to the subtopics
6. Edit each video to include relevant, high-quality graphics
7. Create thumbnail artwork for each video
8. Upload video content to a course sharing platform such as Udemy
9. Include correct formatting for each video and relevant text and links to help users follow the content. 
10. Create quiz questions that test user knowledge after each segment

The Roadmap

August - September 2022

• Curate the list of titles 
• Breakdown titles into subtopics 
• Present outline to experienced community members for review

October - November 2022

• Research relevant projects and media links
• Create script for introduction video
• Record introduction video
• Edit Introduction video
• Create thumbnail artwork

December - January 2023

• Create script for Section 1 videos
• Record Section 1 videos
• Edit Section 1 videos
• Create thumbnail artwork

February - June 2023

• Create scripts for all videos
• Record all videos
• Edit all videos
• Create thumbnail artwork

Long Term Vision

• The Cardano ecosystem has grown by millions of new users who are educated about the key aspects of blockchain technology. The Cardano 101 Course is a reference for new users in the ecosystem to retain information and even provide help to those brand new to the space. 
• Our aim is to create a series of reference points and quizzes that will allow for users to find information quickly 

Managing Workload

• In addition to this proposal for the Cardano 101 Course, the Kaizen Crypto team is submitting another 2 proposals for Fund 9. Our team is globally diverse, experienced, and resilient. Over 10 team members currently work across different timezones, and are connected to various networks and communities, which allows us to ensure we have a sustainable approach to managing our workload if we are to receive funding from Catalyst.

[FEASIBILITY] Please provide a detailed budget breakdown.

The funding requested is needed to pay for the time needed to curate and edit the video content for each course module. We also need to cover the costs of camera equipment, editing software, and any fees for course hosting.

Proposed Budget For Team Salary:

1 person full time on the content curation team at 2000 US$ per month = 24000 US$ in one year

One Time Expenses:

HD DSLR Camera - $1000

Adobe Video Editing Software - $500

Proposed Budget For Post Production and Marketing:

Video Editing - $4,000

Marketing - $500

TOTAL: $30,000 

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

Pritesh Gosai - Kaizen Crypto

Pritesh is a long-time Cardano community member who has been contributing to the ecosystem since 2017. He began creating educational content for the Cardano ecosystem in 2019 and operated the Kaizen stakepool during the Incentivized Testnet. Since then, he has gone on to create one of the most well established brands in the Cardano community with a Youtube channel that has over 1M views and 30k subscribers. He operates several stakepools and contributes to charity in India with operator rewards from Krishna stakepool. The Kaizen Crypto brand is now supported by several community members who span across the entire globe to continue the ethos of continuous improvement for Cardano. 

https://twitter.com/KaizenCrypto

This proposal will be completed mostly by Pritesh. There may be a need for additional help with video editing and post production. The allocated budget for video editing will be used to hire additional freelance talent using website like Fiverr.

https://www.fiverr.com/masalska/edit-your-social-media-video?source=order_page_summary_gig_link_title&funnel=c221947742f1891e693276b55fb49eb3

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

If we are funded this round, we will have enough capital to complete the development of the project. We will not return to Catalyst for further funding. The beginning stages of the project were funded from personal capital of Pritesh (Kaizen Crypto).

[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?

We will measure the number of people who are completing a module each week. We will measure it by taking into account who had attended the lecture at each session, and by tracking how many previous sessions each person had attended. This will show if participants are engaged with the content and returning to learn more from the course. 

We will also measure the knowledge retention of course attendees. We will measure it by setting up quizzes after each course section and scoring participants based on their answers. This will show us if participants are able to understand and apply the course material and will indicate to what degree the content is being consumed. 

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

Success of this project would mean that new members of the Cardano ecosystem would have a structured learning format which they can take at their own pace. Participants will feel confident to share the knowledge they have gained with others. Over 10,000 members of the Cardano community have completed the course. 

The success of this project would also mean the platform has reached a level of credibility amongst the community as a trusted resource of information to help onboard new users. The platform is featured among the top resources for Cardano onboarding and has brought in over 100K new users to the ecosystem. 

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

This proposal is new and our team is excited to continue building on Cardano with the help of the community and Project Catalyst.

Social Networks:

• Join Kaizen Crypto Discord: https://discord.com/invite/Trnssx5qTF
• Join Kaizen Crypto Twitter: https://twitter.com/KaizenCrypto
• Join Kaizen Crypto Telegram: https://t.me/kaizencryptosupport