In a Nutshell: Professional developers are often challenged in finding quality resources to continue their education beyond beginner-level tutorials. Education Ecosystem is a video-based platform that delivers mid-level and advanced project tutorials on a wide range of tech-related topics. Currently, programming and blockchain-related projects are among the most popular tutorials among users. The Education Ecosystem platform also employs blockchain technology with its Education Token, or LEDU, which is used within the ecosystem to incentivize and reward users for various tasks, from watching videos to creating projects.
The tech industry is a rapidly evolving sector, and it’s crucial for developers and other skilled tech professionals to stay on top of the latest trends. What someone learned in programming courses five years ago may be of little relevance today.
But it can be difficult for this group to continue their education once they are out in the real world. And staying abreast of current best practices is not only necessary to remain appealing to employers, but it is essential for maximizing earning potential.
“One of the biggest problems for developers trying to improve their skills is that there is a lack of resources for them to practice with after they have passed the beginner stage,” said Dr. Michael Garbade, Founder and CEO of Education Ecosystem.
He said introductory courses in data science, programming, cybersecurity, blockchain, and other common areas can easily be found on online learning platforms, but availability drops off for mid-level and advanced skills.
Garbade created Education Ecosystem to solve this problem.
The platform — described on the company’s website as a hybrid of Pluralsight and Twitch — is a decentralized learning ecosystem for professionals and college students to learn how to build products for the real world.
Through video tutorials, Education Ecosystem tackles topics including artificial intelligence, cybersecurity, game development, data science, cryptocurrencies, and programming, and helps developers gain the skills and knowledge necessary to earn more.
A Video-Based Ecosystem for Tomorrow’s Tech Industry
Garbade said that videos provide the best medium for learning in the tech world because it’s easy for developers to watch a project creator build a product then replicate the work for themselves.
In addition to the videos, each project is accompanied by a project outline, project repository, and downloadable resources. Education Ecosystem users can also clone project resources from the platform’s Git and run the applications on their own machines.
Education Ecosystem users are able to access all of its projects for free.
“For developers who are at the intermediate stage, finding great resources to improve their skills can be challenging,” Garbade said. “There is also a growing need for developers with skills in areas like blockchain technology, cybersecurity and more. Companies are struggling to find enough talented developers to fill the talent gap which currently exists.”
He said helping to fill that gap is a key priority for Education Ecosystem.
“We also offer a developer relations marketing service where tech companies can have content related to their products created on our platform,” Garbade said. “These projects are then shared with developers on our platform and elsewhere to provide more exposure for our client’s products.”
Since its launch in late 2015, Education Ecosystem has been used by more than 5 million people across 194 countries, and more than 13,000 users have created over 200,000 video tutorials, according to the website.
The company’s team is made up of engineers, designers, and online marketers who bring tech experience from notable companies such as Amazon, General Electric, and Photobucket.
Programming and Blockchain are the Platform’s Most Popular Categories Among Users
“The most popular areas of study on our platform are programming and blockchain/cryptocurrencies,” Garbade told us. “Programming was the first category we started with so it has the largest amount of content currently. And since we’re a blockchain company we tend to attract developers who are interested in blockchain development.”
He said developers who access the blockchain projects are often interested in learning how to create smart contracts and build applications on different blockchains.
“In 2018, blockchain developer was the top emerging job in the U.S. according to the LinkedIn jobs report,” Garbade said. “Since then, so many top companies have been adding blockchain developers to their teams, including the likes of IBM, Amazon, Chase and just about every major banking or tech company.”
Blockchain is the future so developers who are honing their skills today will be the ones to reap the rewards in the near future, he added.
Users can find projects by using Education Ecosystem’s search bar or browse projects by clicking on the various topic categories. Each category includes featured projects at the top of the page, and projects can be sorted by popularity or by date posted.
Garbade said Education Ecosystem has gotten a positive response and users are supportive of the platform’s goals.
“Feedback about the product is generally good as users enjoy watching projects to improve their skills for free,” he said. “However, if things aren’t working properly, they don’t hesitate to let us know through our Zendesk support system or social media platforms. We’re able to take all feedback under consideration and then make necessary adjustments to improve the user experience.”
The company also collects feedback via social media and industry events. Garbade said Education Ecosystem is always eager to learn more about what the developer community is interested in and how it can better serve them.
Education Ecosystem Uses Its LEDU Cryptocurrency to Incentivize Viewers and Project Creators
Education Ecosystem uses blockchain technology on its platform for rewards and incentives, Garbade said.
He said helping students stay motivated to finish courses they start can be a challenge.
“We’ve found that through rewarding them for positive activities with cryptocurrencies that it can help to boost retention rates,” he said.
The platform uses the Education Token, or LEDU, in its ecosystem. Each positive activity a viewer, project creator, site moderator, or API developer completes is rewarded with LEDU tokens, Garbade said.
“For viewers that could include watching projects, submitting project suggestions or referring their friends,” he said.
Project creators are rewarded with LEDU for building projects that viewers want to watch, according to Garbade. And site moderators can earn LEDU by reporting bugs and helping to improve the user experience, while API developers can earn LEDU by developing products on top of the Education Ecosystem API.
“Our internal ecosystem is a classic model that is highly suitable for blockchain smart contract tokenization,” according to Garbade’s Medium article. “The blockchain will decentralize key content, product and project development decisions that are made on both the supply and demand side.”
Garbade said he’s excited to be working on several marketing projects and partnership plans involving schools and colleges with blockchain-focused developer groups.
“We also plan to attend some more blockchain industry events, not only in the U.S. but in Europe and Asia as well,” he said.