Title:
Blockchain Training Alliance development of Zcash training programs
Applicant name:
Blockchain Training Alliance
Pitch: A one-liner elevator pitch version of your proposal
To create a professionally produced video series of educational and training courses to introduce developers to the Zcash ecosystem.
Total Request (USD):
$50000.00 USD
Have you previously received a grant from Zcash Community Grants (formerly called ZOMG) or ZF?
No
Are you seeking or have you received funding from other sources for this proposed project?
No
Applicant background:
BTA has been developing, filming and producing training on Blockchain and Web3 since 2017. Our training programs include non-technical courses and technical training on topics like, Blockchain Security, Solidity and others. BTA has trained more than 100,000 students and provides certifications in Blockchain that are recognized around the world. All filming and production is done in-house and production is done in a manner to ensure students are able to easily understand the content and practice their learning with a series of comprehensive labs. BTA is trusted by dozens of Fortune 500 companies and the US government to provide high quality education
Description of Problem or Opportunity:
Zcash does not have a formal series of educational programs to both introduce the ecosystem to new developers and clearly define growth opportunities for prospective developers.
Proposed Solution: Describe the solution at a high level.
BTA will develop and produce a Zcash-specific training course which will be available at no cost on the BTA website for any interested students to enroll. This training project will include curriculum design/layout and question/exam formatting.
BTA is hosting the training course on their current Learning Management System. The class is on demand and students will have access for one year, starting immediately on the day of enrollment. On demand training is designed for those who prefer to develop the skills they need on their time and at their own pace. Students can stop, pause, rewind, and revisit the videos and labs provided in the class as needed.
Through the internal BTA Learning platform students have a support rep to handle all student issues and questions when taking the course. This is done through an already developed ticketing systems; tickets are responded to within 24 hours.
Solution Format: What is the exact form of the final deliverable you’re creating?
Educational videos hosted on www.blockchaintrainingalliance.com that can be shared across the Zcash community.
Technical Approach: Dive into the how of your project. Describe your approaches, components, workflows, methodology, etc. Bullet points and diagrams are appreciated!
BTA will complete all post-production editing & rendering to create a high-quality production videos that’ll be viewed by thousands of prospective Zcash developers.
Students are able to access details about the course via the Blockchain Training Alliance website. The link includes the following on the page:
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Short preview video covering what students will learn in the course
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Course Overview
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Course Prerequisites
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Course Outline and Topic
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FAQs on the course
Once the student orders the class, the student is provided access via the BTA Learning Management System. Access is available to the student for one year.
Dependencies: What external entities is your project dependent on? What involvement is required from ZF, ECC, and/or other external organizations? Who would have to incorporate your work in order for it to be usable?
BTA is a self-contained education company that creates and produces all educational content in-house. We do encourage input from the Zcash team, if they would like to be included. Zcash will own all rights to reproduce and share the content that BTA creates.
Execution risks: What obstacles do you expect? What is most likely to go wrong? Which unknown factors could jeopardize success? Who would have to incorporate your work in order for it to be usable?
From our experience since 2017, we have found that the greatest barrier to an educational course’s success is lack of promotion from the community. BTA creates courses that are meant to be shared and are able to be consumed and learned at the student’s individual learning pace.
Unintended Consequences: What are the negative ramifications if your project is successful? Consider usability, stability, privacy, integrity, availability, decentralization, interoperability, maintainability, technical debt, requisite education, etc.
BTA will avoid this type of issue by working closely with the Zcash team to protect and guard all proprietary information and processes. The BTA system was created to handle large volumes of online students and has built-in redundancies to guarantee a seamless learning experience.
Evaluation plan: What metrics for success will you share with the community once you’re done? In addition to quantitative metrics, what qualitative metrics will you commit to report?
BTA is focused on ensuring that developers in the Web3 space are aware of the opportunity to take this free training. Our success will be based on student enrollment, and we would like to see 5,000 students enrolled in the course by end of 2023.
BTA will deliver enrollment, progress, and completion metrics monthly to Zcash. BTA will also provide survey results from students that have successfully completed the course.
Hardware/Software total budget:
$0.00 USD
Please provide justification for the total hardware/software budget:
N/A
Services total budget (cloud, hosting, etc.):
$0.00 USD
Please provide justification for the total services budget:
N/A
Compensation total budget:
$50000.00 USD
Please provide justification for the total compensation budget:
This compensation amount is for the whole training project and includes all ongoing hosting fees.
Curriculum design and layout:
BTA curriculum design team, organize outline, timing of course, structure chapters, review/edit the course slides and review lab guide. BTA support team will review exam questions, loading of exam to certification platform, load the course into the BTA LMS
Instructor (Specialist):
Zcash course specialist working to create the course content, develop the slide deck for students. Instructor will create a series of labs that will allow students hands-on experience with Zcash.
Filming
Filming will be done in studio to provide the most professional look and feel for students. BTA will utilize in house film team to video the course. Filming is expected to take 4-5 days and will leverage both the instructor and BTA film team.
Editing & Production
Once filming is completed the editing of the videos will be completed in a 1–2-week time period to cut video into chapters and subsections. Lab videos will be edited to demonstrate the lab walkthroughs for students.
Tech / Student support
Students will be supported through the BTA ticketing system on the LMS system. Students will be provided free support on both technical and non-technical issues within 24 hours of the request.
Do you require startup funding?
Yes
Start up funding - detailed explanation:
This round of funding will be allocated to create and design all curriculum. During this phase, all content is filmed, edited and then sent to the Zcash team for approval.
Start up funding - USD value of payout upon approval of grant:
$25000.00
Milestone 1 - estimated completion date:
03/31/2023
Milestone 1 - USD value of payout upon completion of deliverables:
$25000.00
Deliverable 1.1
Delivery of a completed final course that is ready for student enrollment.
Total proposed USD value of grant:
$50000.00 USD
How was the project timeline determined?
Project timeline was determined based upon BTA’s experience in creating similar Web3 courses.
Application submission date:
01/20/2023
