Steemit Crypto Academy | Summary on The Fixed Beginners’ Class | Season 3 Week 1

The first week of the Steemit Crypto Academy Season 3 ran from 21st of June up to the 27th of June for the beginner classes. The beginner Tier Professors, @lenonmc21, @reminiscence01, @wahyunahrul and @awesononso, have been able to review a total of 264 tasks.

The distribution of the tasks are as follows;

• Task 1 had a total of 104 entries
• Task 2 had a total of 75 entries
• Task 3 had a total of 48 entries
• Task 4 had a total of 16 entries
• Task 5 had a total of 13 entries
• Task 6 had a total of 8 entries

Observation

Overall, the students tend to perform the tasks chronologically.

Reference

• Plagiarized content is for posts with spun content.
• Below average is for scores below 5.
• Average is for scores within 5 and 5.9.
• Good is for scores within 6, 7 and 8.
• Excellent is for scores within 9 and 10.
• Invalid is for posts from users who do not qualify to perform the tasks.

Task 1

There were more entries on Task 1 than the rest. This task was taken by @sapwood and is supposed to enlighten the students on the basic functions of the Steem and Tron Blockchains.

Most of the students attempted the 1st question which is as follows;

What is PoB? What does curation mean to you in Steem Blockchain? What are the benefits of building SP? How do you explain self-upvote as a good or bad social behavior & why? Explore Coinmarketcap.com to indicate rank, STEEM price, and coinmarketcap of STEEM(screenshot required)? What are the different tokens do you earn by socializing in Steem Blockchain?

The performance for this Task is given below;

Score	Frequency
0/Plagiarized content	1
1-1.9	0
2-2.9	0
3-3.9	6
4-4.9	8
5-5.9	12
6-6.9	17
7-7.9	12
8-8.9	13
9-9.9	16
10	10
Invalid	9
Total	104

Mean - 6.19

Observations

• The students were able to understand the basics of the Steem and Trx blockchain generally.
• There was some confusion between curation and voting.
• The POB concept was properly understood by the students.
• There was a general avoidance of the last question in this task.

Task 2

This Task was taken by @yousafharoonkhan and is an introduction to Blockchain, Decentralization and Blockchain Explorer.

Most students attempted the 2nd question in this case which is;

Define decentralization. Describe the advantages and disadvantages of a decentralized system. In what areas of life can a decentralized blockchain be helpful? (write in own words)

The performance for this Task is given below;

Score	Frequency
0/Plagiarized content	2
1-1.9	0
2-2.9	1
3-3.9	3
4-4.9	2
5-5.9	6
6-6.9	8
7-7.9	8
8-8.9	10
9-9.9	19
10	10
Invalid	6
Total	75

Mean - 6.4

Observations

• The students did not fully understand the concept of a blockchain as there was a major avoidance of the first question.
• There were some confusions between the terms “block” and “node”.
• The students generally understood the concept of decentralization.
• There were minor confusions between the pros and cons of decentralization and that of cryptocurrencies.
• The students generally understood the function of a block explorer.

Task 3

The 3rd Task is on The basics of Bitcoin, Cryptocurrencies and Public Chain. The course was taken by @stream4u.

On this Task, the students were mostly inclined to attempt the 2nd question which is;

What Is Bitcoin and what was the Aim Behind Bitcoin Invention? Is Cryptocurrency Good For A Business To accept As Payment? Why?

The general performance for this task is as follows;

Score	Frequency
0/Plagiarized content	1
1-1.9	0
2-2.9	0
3-3.9	0
4-4.9	3
5-5.9	2
6-6.9	3
7-7.9	5
8-8.9	9
9-9.9	11
10	9
Invalid	5
Total	48

Mean - 7

Observations

• The students generally did very well in this task.
• There were some misconceptions about the identity of Satoshi Nakamoto by the students.

Task 4

Task 4 was taken by @sapwood. The class is was an introduction to Blockchain Consensus Mechanisms.

On this Task, Almost all the students attempted the 1st question which is;

What is the difference between PoW & PoS? Advantages & Disadvantages? Which one is better in scaling Capacity? Examples?

The general performance for this task is as follows;

Score	Frequency
0/Plagiarized content	1
1-1.9	0
2-2.9	1
3-3.9	1
4-4.9	3
5-5.9	2
6-6.9	2
7-7.9	1
8-8.9	1
9-9.9	3
10	0
Invalid	1
Total	16

Mean - 5.06

Observations

• This class was generally difficult for the students.
• There were some misplaced concepts.
• A number of the assignments were incomplete.
• There was no attempt to answer the 3rd question.

Task 5

On Task 5, the students were introduced to the world of Exchanges and Crypto Trading. The class was taken by @imagen.

On This Task, most students attempted the 3rd question which goes as follows;

Explain in your own words what an Exchange is. Differences between a Wallet and an Exchange. Mention the advantages and disadvantages of DEX and CEX. Have you used an Exchange before? tell us about your experience.

The general performance for this task is as follows;

Score	Frequency
0/Plagiarized content	2
1-1.9	0
2-2.9	0
3-3.9	0
4-4.9	0
5-5.9	1
6-6.9	0
7-7.9	3
8-8.9	2
9-9.9	1
10	4
Invalid	0
Total	13

Mean - 7

Observations

• The students generally understood Exchanges.
• The 2nd question was not attempted by any student.
• There was a good number comparisons between wallets and CEXs instead of Exchanges in general.

Task 6

Task 6 was the least performed task this week. The topic was on the basics of Blockchain wallets. Professor @sapwood handled this lesson.

On this task, most students attempted the 1st question which is;

How do you store/secure your keys? What are the different forms of Private Key(Examples/Screenshot)? Download & Install TronLink Wallet(Android/iOS/Extension)? How do you store the key(Hint- write it down on a notepad, demonstrate it with examples)? Which form of the key are you comfortable with to handle your TronLink Wallet? Include Screenshots & hide/blur the sensitive information.

The general performance for this task is as follows;

Score	Frequency
0/Plagiarized content	0
1-1.9	0
2-2.9	0
3-3.9	0
4-4.9	0
5-5.9	0
6-6.9	1
7-7.9	1
8-8.9	3
9-9.9	3
10	0
Invalid	0
Total	8

Mean - 8

Observations

• The students had a good experience with the Tron Wallet.
• The students generally know how to properly store their private keys.
• Some of the students did not realize that the Keystore file functioned with a password.
• The students generally did not know that the keystore file is a JSON file.
• Question 2 was not attempted however we can attribute that to the low turnout.

Overall Performance

Rating	Excellent	Good	Average	Below average	Plagiarized content	Invalid
Frequency	86	99	23	28	7	21

Suggestions

• Students should learn to properly understand and follow instructions.
• There should be a better effort to understand the topics rather than just paraphrasing the lecture or other content online.
• The students should learn to organize their articles better. The appeal of a homework post is very important for gaining good grades.
• The students should always complete the tasks they choose. An incomplete tasks cannot score full marks in presentation, compliance with topic and quality of analysis.

General achievements

• We were able to smoothly introduce basic cryptocurrency and blockchain topics to newbies and otherwise.

• We were able to mentor students and correct mistakes made on the assignments.

• We were able to curb plagiarism and prevent plagiarists from graduating into the proper academy.

Congratulations to all the students that successfully completed the tasks during the first week.

Thank you.