Steemit Crypto Academy Feedback

It's a privilege to be one of the students of the Steemit Crypto Academy (SCA). In this post, I am going to be giving feedback and suggestions on how the Academy can move forward. But before I go on , I would like to thank the entire Admins and the Professors who have worked tirelessly since the beginning of the first season in the Academy.

Let me start by appreciating the steem curators, 01, 02 and 03 who have been the one curating the homework and making sure that people are getting reward. I also extend my gratitude to the entire Admins of the steemitblog that keeps posting the homework and updating us time to time. I can't but appreciate our amiable Professors, both current one and those who have worked in the previous seaons. You are all wonderful, unique and special. I really thank you so much for your effort in producing quality contents for us, the Students. Thank you so much.

Further, let me congratulate all the students who have been keeping at what is being taught here in the Academy. You have made a right decisions by learning and practising what you are learning. There's no way to stand out in life than learning and growing everyday. For the way to make growth a reality is by learning to be better than who we were yesterday.

That being said. I will be giving a brief details of the season I have participated in.

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Brief Details of the Seasons I have Participated in

Joining steemit is one of the best decisions I made last year. I joined steemit when a friend shared his experience with me of how he was learning from he steemit Crypto Academy and how he's being rewarded even while learning. I decided to give it a try after his lecture that talked about what the Steemit ecosystem is, and the various communities one can join. Although, being a student of forex trading, I was interested more on steemit Crypto Academy because I didn't have knowledge of cryptocurrencies.

I joined the Steemit in May 2021 during the season 2 of the Steemit Crypto Academy. But I couldn't participate in the season 2 because I didn't meet the requirements (minimum SP, Reputation and achievement post) to join any of the level. So, I began to grow my steem power and reputation so I can join the academy. I joined various communities where I could participate in. I remembered I received maximum support from @steemalive as I engaged in so many activities in the community. I also used my writing skill in writing and review community. Further, 500Winnon Support Program helped me a lot to grow my Steem power.

Doing all these made me to quickly grow my influence. Although, it wasn't easy, but I decided to keep pushing because of my interest in joining the Steemit Crypto Academy. By the time the season 2 was ending, I already close to the minimum requirements for the beginner level. Upon opening of the season 3 I already met the requirements. Then I joined the Academy. The first lecture I received was on Whales. I have not heard the word before. I enjoyed the topic and I did more research and made my first post in the academy. I remember I scored 6.5 for my first post. I was happy because I made it. So, I firstly participated in the beginner level until I met the requirements for intermediate level. In essence, I was actively involved in the season 3 of the Academy.

I made it to the advanced level in the last week of season 3, but because the rules changed in season 4, I was unable to participate in the advanced level and I had to stick to the beginner and intermediate levels. By the time of season 4, I have already been exposed to many things on blockchain and cryptocurrencies. I enjoyed the season 4 of the Academy very well as the lecturers worked tirelessly to teach us.

In the season 5, the just concluded season, I was also involved in many of the classes. Although, I participated more on the beginners and the advanced levels because I so much liked the courses taught. Overall, the seasons I participated in were awesome, although, there were some lapses in them, especially season 5 which I am going to talk about later.

What worked well with the Academy

• Structured Contents by Professors

One of the things I see that worked well in all the seasons I participated in was that, the contents of the lecture was structured very well. They way in which the curriculum was organized was awesome, as the beginners contents was different from that of intermediate and intermediate from that of advanced.

• Organization

Here, I will talk about the way the three levels are made separate. This is a very good initiative as the students can participate in whatever class they are fit in. There will not be a point that, the class is too hard or too advanced for them. Students can take whatever topics that they are interested in.

• Pairing of the Professors

Another thing that worked well is the pairing of the Professors. Looking through how they were paired, I noticed it's very good. Some of them are teaching cryptocurrency chart/technical analysis and some fundamental analysis and blockchain technology. I love that. This really helped us as we were not just learning about an aspect for the week, rather we combined both together.

• Weekly Updates by steemitblog

One of the things that helped me to see the work of each Professor is by going to the Steemitblog to click on the update and go through it. In fact, by pinning the weekly update, one can quickly see the work. Although, there were times when it wasn't pinned which made it very difficult to quickly find the courses for the week. But overall, the Steemitblog tried and pinned so many weekly updates except for just two or three weeks which I think they forgot.

• Reward given to the Students

No matter how poor the score of the students were, if they scored 5 and above, they got rewarded for their work. This is a very great initiative. While learning from different Professors, we are still earning at the same time. I think this is good. Some of us who don't have any job have something to use as upkeep. The reward was constant, although, it was reduced in the last season, season 5.

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What Did not Work Well

Here, I am going to be talking about what I think did not well in the academy from the time I joined. As we all know that no matter how wonderful a thing is, there is always room for improvement to make it more wonderful. Hence, I will be pointing at some of the things that I think didn't work well.

• Curation of the homework

One of the things that didn't work well in the Academy is that, sometimes curators didn't curate the post and that leads to being reposted the homework by the students. This happened so many times, especially in the season 5. Many of the beginners homework post by the students were not curated despite the fact that there were limited entries in the season 5 compared to previous seasons.

• Sometimes, homework Post by the Professors are too much and complex for the level

Another thing is that, some Professors make their homework to be very lengthen. It's not always lengthen, it may also be very complex. I don't know why they do that sometimes, may be because they didn't want to review many homework. And we know that once they make it complex, only some of the students will be able to submit entry. I think beginner level should not be as complex as advance.

• Rules that kept changing

The Academy kept changing the rules in each season. Changing the rules is not the problems, though. But when the rules is very tough than what people can abide in, then there will be imbalances or there won't be much progress. I do think, if the Academy wants to change the rules, they should consider how it will affect the academy.

• Reduction of the reward which led to limited Entries

In the last season, reward given to the students and Professors were greatly reduced despite the fact that people were still participating in the club 5050, club75 and club100. I do think, if you want to make people participate in something, increase their rewards. Although this was done when season 4 was about to end and at the beginning of season 5, but it was stopped at some point which led to reduction of entries, as students didn't see reason to continue participating.

• Non uniform Grading System

The grading system of the professors are different. This makes the grading not uniform. Sometimes, I wonder why some Professors give some marks even though you use markdown and everything. They will still claim you have not used markdown. I think, there should be uniformity in the grading system. The beginner level should be the same, intermediate should be the same and advanced should also be.

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How you would improve the Academy

In this part of the review and feedback, I am going to be talking on how to improve the academy. So, follow me closely.

• Increase the Participation

One of the ways to improve the Academy is by increasing the participation. In the last season, season 5, the participation has dropped significantly to the extent that the number of active users were only about 400 out of 10, 000 subscribers. We could see that the participation were greatly reduced.... Hence, one of the ways to increase participation is by giving more people chance to participate. And this may mean to reduce the minimum requirements.

• Promotion

If you are selling a product and you don't invest in promotion, there's no way people will get to know the product. So, I will actively promote the academy. It's a way to improve it. And one of the strategies I will employ is by recruiting more promoters which will work both on the steemit Ecosystem and outside the ecosystem by telling people the importance of joining the academy.

• Encourage Professors to give quality lecture

When people learn something that adds to their lives, they will naturally come back to the source where they learnt it. One of the things I would do to improve the Academy is to encourage Professors to provide quality contents to their students. Perhaps, the Professors which give his best to promote quality contents could also be rewarded so that it will serve as motivation for the remaining one.

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What changes would you make for future seasons of the Academy?

There are some changes I would like to make if I were opportune to make one.

• Ensuring the topic taught by Professor fit all levels

One of the things I saw in the previous seasons is that, some topics taught by the Professors didn't fit to the level which they taught. Some students just did the work because of the reward and hence will not have much impact on them. If I were opportune to make any changes, I would make sure the topics are fitted to all levels.

• Developing a grading system for each level

The next thing I would do is to develop a uniform grading scale for each level. I would make the grading scale the same for beginner level. This will be the grading scale that the Professors teaching beginner will be using. Likewise, I would do for intermediate and advanced level.

• Educating participants on the benefits of participating on club5050, 75 and 100.

Since club 5050, 75, and 100 is an initiative to improve the Academy. I would create an article which will educate the participants on the benefits of participating in the initiative. Once they see a reason to join, most people will join. Although I would not force any. When there's communication time to time on the benefits, they will join.

• Increase the reward of club5050, club 75 and club100 participants

Also, I would increase the reward of the participants who join the initiative. Once the people who have not joined see that the participants who have joined are seeing more rewards, they too will join and thereby improving the academy.

• Lift the ban on People who plagiarized and give them another chance for the new year

Further, what I would do to increase participation is lifting ban on participants who have plagiarized and banned. Most of them have been banned for a very long time and they must have learnt one lessons or the other. I will not encourage plagiarism, but at the same time, I will give them chances to try again, especially in the new year, 2022.

• Accepting feedback at the end of each season

One of the things that aid growth in any organization is giving people opportunity to give feedback. This is because, they will see even what you are not seeing. So, I would make sure I welcome feedback from both the students and the Professors. And this will be done at the end of each season to enable me plan well for the next one.

• Allowing participants give feedback on each Professor

Also, allowing students give feedback on each professors would let me know which of the Professors are giving their best and which one need improvement. Some Professors don't want to be criticized and find it difficult to apologise to students even if they make any kind of mistake. So it's important to give them opportunity to rate the Professors.

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What did you think of the marking scheme for Academy posts? And the rewards available?

I have slightly talked about the marking scheme, but here I'm going to go deeper since we have been asked for our opinion on the marking scheme and reward available.

My Opinion about the marking Scheme

As I have said earlier, the grading scale or the marking scheme is not uniform which I think it's not good enough. I think the management of the academy should come up with the marking scheme for each level. This will enable the Professors to know how to grade each question they set.

For example, the marking scheme of the beginner should be the same. Meaning that, every Professor teaching the beginner class should use this marking scheme instead of developing their own which doesn't similar. Then, let them know, if they will be grading questions or grading other things rather than questions.

My Opinion About the Reward Available

In the previous seasons to seasons 5, the reward given to participants who made homeworks were better than that of the season 5. I think this was one of the reasons which made the percentage of participation reduce greatly in the season 5. The entries per week submitted by the participants had reduced during the time and this led to slow progress in the academy. I do think if the reward during this time was increased, perhaps many people would have joined to participate in the academy.

I have thought of this several times. Why don't the Admin or management of the academy increase the reward when they noticed a drop in the number of participants to motivate people to participate. But, I still thought may be there was something behind not increasing it, or the reward available was not enough to serve the participants.

Also, what I noticed, especially in the season 5 is that there was much work load on @steemcurator02 which made it difficult for him to curate as much homework as possible per day. I think, if the @steemcurator01 should join in curating the homeworks just as in the seasons before 5, it would make it more easier.

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You can also tell us what you enjoyed most, and what you learnt from the Academy

Here, I'm going to be talking about what I enjoyed most and what I have learnt since I joined the Academy. Again, let me tell you that I joined the Steemit in May 2021. It was during the season 2. I couldn't join that season because I needed to meet minimum requirements, and I had to work hard to earn reputation and steem power. Fortunately, by the time the season 3 commenced, I had met the requirements and I was able to join.

One thing I enjoyed the most is lessons which has to do with technical analysis. Being a student of forex trading before I joined steemit, my interest has always been on the chart. So, anytime I saw lessons which has to do with studying the graph, I quickly rushed to it. It's good to know a little about all. I didn't have experience of blockchain before, joining the Academy helped me to learn many things about blockchain technology. But, I actually have keen interest for technical analysis.

I have learnt so many things from the academy which has greatly influenced me. One of the first lessons I learnt in the academy has helped me have verified binance and Kucoin exchange account where I keep my asset and saving. I do not only safe my asset in one exchange, I safe in different exchanges (centralized and decentralized).

Through the knowledge gained from the academy, I have been able to do fundamental analysis on some airdrops before participating on them which came out successfully. Before, I didn't know how to do this. I will just participate in any airdrops without knowing if it's legit or not. Thanks to our Professors who have sacrificed their time and energy to develope great contents.

Further, I have also been able to educate people around me on how to use cryptocurrencies. Most people still don't believe that cryptocurrencies are digital money which they can invest in. Through the knowledge gained by participating in the academy, I have not only invested in some cryptocurrencies, but also taught some people.

In addition, participating in the academy has greatly increased my research ability and content creation. When I first joined, it was kind of difficult for me to open many tabs to do research on a topic, but right now, I have improved. I can do research on any topic and make conclusion on what I find out. There are many lessons learnt.... Many!

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Has the Academy inspired you to continue learning more about crypto subjects? If so, how and where have you extended your crypto learning?

Yes! The Academy has inspired me to learn more about blockchain and cryptocurrencies. Recently, I was telling my Twin brother on how to really study some cryptocurrencies which can rise in the next coming year. We actually research some cryptos by going through some websites to study the price movement of the cryptocurrency so far. The thing is, if you are passionate about something, you learn more about it.

In fact, we often talked to someone who is like a mentor to us whenever we see a project if it's worth investing time and money on it. I have made series of investment on some coins. I have this this thinking that there should be a way to learn more about cryptocurrencies and really find a way to earn more about them. I have been hearing about play and earn cryptocurrency for free... Although I have done more research on it, but there was a course taken by a professor on the topic in the season 5. I wasn't unable to participate in the course but my brother did and explained it to me. He was able to claim some cryptocurrencies for free.

In addition, I have been studying about pure price action on my own. I still believe, self taught help and doing research about the past behavior of buyers and sellers on the cryptocurrency charts can help me come with my own strategy. In essence, learning about blockchain and cryptocurrencies on steemit Crypto Academy has enabled me to go in depth to many areas in search for more knowledge.

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Has the Academy inspired you to start trading in crypto currencies? If so, which ones.

Yes! The academy has inspired me to start trading. One of the type of trading I do often is spot trading. Remember I told you I have a verified account on binance and Kucoin exchange. I do most of my trading on binance exchange platform. The other type of trading I do is arbitrage trading. It was Prof. Reddileep who taught us how to do arbitrage trading. Although, it's profitable for people which have large cryptocurrency but I do it once in a while especially, whenever I want to exchange.

I have not started the other type of trading, although I use demo account to practice this. Since cryptocurrency is such volatile, I still want to gain more knowledge before going to live trading. I have in mind to start live trading as soon as possible.

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Conclusion

In this post, I have been able to cover all aspects which are requested for the feedback. Thanks to the entire management of the Steemit Crypto Academy for this privelege given to us, the students to give feedback and say our minds. I'm so honored that I'm among the people who provided feedback. I do hope our suggestions and feedback is for the growth of the academy. Thank you so much. Long live steemit Ecosystem, long live Steemit Crypto Academy.