Please describe your proposed solution.
Cardano offers immense opportunities and potential for developers with its strong and sustainable development. However, programming smart contracts on the Cardano platform requires significant knowledge and skills, posing a challenge for developers looking to explore and engage in this field.
Currently, there are English-language courses available for Cardano developers, such as the Haskell Course (IOG Academy) and the Plutus Pioneer Program #4 (IOG Academy). However, we have identified the following barriers for Vietnamese developers in accessing these courses:
- Language barrier: English-language courses are a hindrance for Vietnamese programmers.
- Web-based Training: These courses lack interactivity and constraints, making them better suited for individuals with high discipline.
- Course duration: The extended duration of these courses leads to many participants not completing them. For instance, based on the actual discussion activity of the Haskell Course participants, we observed a decreasing trend in the level of interaction over time. Details can be seen in the images below:
To address these challenges, we have established the "Together Learning Haskell/Plutus in native language" club, which operates as follows:
- The club is self-operated, with support from experienced members. Members will be divided into groups, the groups will take turns preparing the lecture (based on the Haskell Course - IOG Academy) and sharing it with all members weekly. This motivates members to take responsibility for everyone's learning, and we believe that "The best way to Learn is to Teach".
- Knowledge-sharing sessions are conducted online once a week, recorded, and made available on our YouTube channel. Each session includes homework exercises to reinforce the learned concepts.
- Members will cross-check each other's homework exercises to ensure everyone takes responsibility for reviewing previous lessons and completing the exercises, fostering progress together.
- A Telegram group is created for members to exchange ideas, ask questions, share resources, and collaborate in their development journey. We aim to foster a supportive and collaborative learning environment.
- We collect relevant questions for small Q&A sessions at the end of each learning session.
- Project team act as mentors of the club, providing guidance and addressing the queries of club members. We has already operated a self-learning Haskell and Plutus group using this approach. We have been running for nearly a year, with 16 original members.
- Monthly knowledge assessments are conducted to measure members' progress.
- Contributions to the club, such as lecture preparation, sharing materials, completing assignments, and reviewing others' assignments, are rewarded to encourage and motivate active participation and engagement.
- We encourage members to actively seek additional knowledge beyond the lectures, share their learning and study experiences with fellow members.
- We invite experienced developers from the Cardano Vietnam community to join the club and participate in discussions to share their development experiences on Cardano.
- We aim to connect and engage with the Cardano community, learn from their experiences, and explore new employment opportunities.
The "Together Learning Haskell/Plutus in native language" club will operate in the long term. This project is the initial phase (8 months), our focus will be on building a foundational knowledge of Haskell for members. The lectures will be based on the Haskell Course offered by IOG Academy.
With these solutions in place, the project will attract a number of new developers to Cardano and contribute to increasing the number of proposals submitted to Catalyst.
The experience gained in the first learning group will set the stage for the success of this project. We believe that this model can be replicated in many different countries, helping to attract developers from various communities into the Cardano ecosystem.
(the screenshot from previous online learning group)