Steemit Crytpto Academy - Feedback / Summary.

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Hello Steemians, I wish to use this opportunity to thank Steemitblog for this feedback program on the Academy so far. This is a good initiative for the team and also the members of the community as this will help to improve the standard and performance of the Academy.

I consider Steemit Crypto Academy as one of the best development from the Steemit team. The academy has gone a long way to educate both existing and new users on the knowledge of Blockchain and Cryptocurrencies. I believe there's more the crypto industry has to offer in the financial market and having knowledge of the evolving technology is necessary for making a good investment decision.

I joined the academy as a student in February 2021. Before that, I have knowledge of the financial market because I trade forex and cryptocurrencies. My knowledge about cryptocurrency was limited to trading Bitcoins and fits using technical analysis. Joining the crypto academy made me understand the concept and idea of blockchain technology and also the reason behind the invention of blockchain technology.

My experience and passion for cryptocurrencies contributed to my outstanding performance which earned me a role as an academy professor. My role as a professor has helped me to grow and expand my knowledge in the crypto industry. In the next few sections, I will discuss my experience so far as a crypto professor and also my suggestions on the development of the academy.

What worked well with the Academy?

The Crypto Academy has been a great innovation by the Steemit team. The organization and the combination of both the students and also team of professors are top-notch and I commend the Steemit team for maintaining such standard in the academy. Also, the academy has become a citadel of learning for both beginners and experienced crypto users to learn more about the crypto market.

The introduction of the 3 levels - Beginners, Intermediate and Advanced in season 3 and also the introduction of fixed courses helped to improve the quality of contents, learning and also brought about maximum coordination in the activities of the Academy. This helped users to participate in the lessons according to their level of knowledge in the crypto market.

The introduction of #club5050, #club75, and also #club100 was a powerful development by the Steemit team to help develop the Steemit ecosystem. I believe the aim of the program is to encourage users to build their Steem power which will, in turn, contribute to the growth of the Steemit ecosystem. Seriously, I have benefitted from this program. Since the program was initiated last year October, I have powered up almost 5k Steem from my earnings, and this helped to increase my voting worth and also my influence in the Steemit ecosystem.

I do like to appreciate the professors who focused more on the investment aspect of the crypto market. Like my teacher will always say in class 'Any knowledge that can't be converted to money is a waste'. So many of us have no knowledge of making investment analysis in the crypto market. I know some of the students who have started trading cryptocurrencies and taking advantage of the DeFi market through the knowledge they acquired from the lessons.

What I feel didn't work well in the Academy?

The following are what I think didn't work well in the academy.

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The Rules

The Crypto academy team is working to ensure that proper standards and coordination are maintained in the academy. But I think the Academy rules are too strict and this discourages new users from joining the Academy while the existing ones are quitting. This can be confirmed in the number of homework tasks submitted in Season 5 compared to the previous seasons.

As a professor, I feel bad disqualifying homework tasks of users who do not meet #club5050 rules. These users spend quality time performing these tasks and I believe they do so because of their interest and passion to learn about crypto. Disqualifying their homework tasks is not encouraging and I believe an adjustment can be made to it.

Similarly, users who do not meet the #club5050 post should be considered with a little percentage of the vote from the curators instead of totally ignoring the post. Though the new rule might favor existing users who have been active in the Academy. I'm more concerned about the new users who want to take advantage of the Academy to learn more about cryptocurrency. Yes, they can take the courses without participating in the homework. But I believe we are not achieving our goals and also we are not motivating the users to continue being active.

Let's not forget that the Steemit ecosystem is a decentralized platform. Making rules that restrict users to participate in the activities of the ecosystem goes against the goal of decentralization.
I believe the team can make changes to the current rules while still maintaining proper standards and coordination in the academy.

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The Lessons

I commend my fellow professors for the efforts they put into preparing quality lessons for the users. I sometimes feel that the lessons are too difficult and time-consuming. Sometimes, it requires users to perform real transactions on a real account. The following are what I think should be looked into.

• The beginner's course should focus on introducing users to different aspects of the crypto market. I do not support the lessons on trading strategies in the beginners and intermediate levels. The beginner's course and intermediate course should focus on the history, introduction uses, and understanding the working principles of these trading systems. While the advanced courses should focus on the implementation of the trading systems in the crypto market.
• I do not support performing real transactions by the students with emphasis on technical analysis. The crypto market is highly volatile and most of the trading strategies are new to the users. Also, trading strategies are meant to be back-tested by users to understand them properly which I believe performing transactions using a demo account is ideal for this case. Using real transactions for homework tasks can lead to loss of funds. The homework task aims to ensure users understand the lessons and I believe this aim can be achieved using the demo accounts. Users can on their own backtest this system severally before implementing them in real trading accounts.

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The Top 3 Homework Tasks

I do not support Advanced and intermediate level students winning the spot for Top 3 homework task in the beginner's course. The advanced and intermediate level students are more experienced in the academy and this makes them do exceptionally well in the beginner's course. This is just like setting a boxing match between a heavy-weight champion and a lightweight. Users who participate in the advanced courses should only be permitted to compete for the top spot in the advanced level courses and the same principle should be applied to the beginners and intermediate levels.

How I will Improve the Academy

• The team should focus on encouraging more users to participate in the academy activities. While making rules to maintain standards and coordination in the academy, the interest of the users should also be considered for the growth of the Academy.
• The reward system has been good so far, but I will like to encourage the team to adjust the voting system as the price of Steem fluctuates. I believe the rewards are meant to motivate users to be active members which will help them build their Steem power to contribute to the growth of the blockchain.
• As a professor, it takes a lot of time to prepare a lesson in the academy. Also, marking homework tasks, computing data for summary are a lot of work. I think the Academy can adjust the reward system on the lessons and also vote professors comments on homework tasks to encourage them to carry out their duties diligently in the academy.
• We can encourage users to share their posts on social media like Twitter.com and Facebook to create more awareness outside the Steemit platform. The crypto space is fast evolving and I believe that newbies will be glad to take advantage of the opportunity to learn about the crypto market while earning.
• Though the number of homework tasks submitted is sometimes huge, I encourage the assistant professors to also help out in grading homework tasks. This will enable the curator to vote properly without running out of voting power. Also, it will help to reduce the number of expired tasks without curation.
• The feedback system in the academy is not encouraging especially from the professors. Some users get ignored when they seek clarification from the homework tasks. I urge the professors to fully engage in responding to issues from the users.
  

What I have benefitted from the academy

I joined the academy with little knowledge about the crypto market and Blockchain technology. I have learned a lot as a student and also as a teacher from the lessons. Given the opportunity to become a professor has helped me a lot to put in more work in understanding the market. Having knowledge of the risk associated with the crypto market, my goal is focused on laying the foundation of cryptocurrency investment for beginners so they can make good investment decisions in the market.

Also, the support from the academy has really helped me in terms of building my Steem power. I joined the academy with a delegated Steem power of 100SP. Right now, I have more than 8k SP, and all thanks to the introduction of #club5050 which has helped me to achieve this figure in a short time.

Conclusion

I'm glad to have been allowed to express my view about the academy so far. The Academy has been a great opportunity for the crypto enthusiast to learn more about cryptocurrency. Though the Academy is making efforts to maintain proper standards and coordination in its activities, its rules shouldn't deprive users of taking part in such activities. I only ask for the team to look into its rules and make it flexible enough for more users to take advantage of this great opportunity to learn about crypto.

Thanks to the Steemit team once again for this great opportunity.

Best regards,
@reminiscence01