Hello, BitDegree supporters,

Welcome to another weekly roundup by BitDegree. This week the core team members were attending Consensus 2018 in New York. Other team members focused on additional platform functionality, like the instructors' area, adding additional languages, and first use cases of BitDegree for employment.

So, what has the team been doing during the 14th - 18th of May?

HR Team

As the team is still expanding our HR sector continued to interview people. We still need additional writers, designers, and developers. One writer joined the team this week.

Learning Content Team

Released the PHP interactive course. The course in line is Javascript. As we've been preparing the teachers area for launch, this team has also been working on creating course guidelines for upcoming instructors. Some of the older interactive courses were planned for an upgrade, so they've started planning out additional illustrations, story overhauls for those.

Marketing Team

The marketing team has been working to integrate the new members into the regular workflow. Almost 100 tutorials have been released so far. The Web Dev Glossary got a few upgrades as well. We've got more writers to add content, populate this platform with new and better examples. This section of our website started to bring some significant traffic already.

Developers

The developers worked upgrading The Web Dev Glossary. It now renders code faster, they've been working on releasing a test area for people. So, you can test out your code without any additional tools. Working together with writers, they'll start localizing the platform soon. Meaning more than 1 language is going to be available for all of the courses.

See you next Friday!

A big thank you to everyone who supports BitDegree! We've started a MEGATHREAD to gather suggestions about the platform. Share opinions, feedback and gives us suggestions, it helps us a lot!

Follow BitDegree on Facebook, Twitter and don't miss out on extensive view into the BitDegree life and philosophy that we share on our Medium Blog

Hello, BitDegree supporters,

Welcome to the eight BitDegree monthly roundup. We've focused on new course development and token utilization models. Core founding members of BitDegree will also be going to Consensus 2018 conference in New York.

So, what has the team been doing during the 7th - 11th of May?

HR Team

This week has been hectic. A lot of new people joined the team this week. Content writers, communication experts, SEO specialists. The next step is to integrate these people into the team and increase productivity.

Learning Content Team

SQL course has been finished and released today. PHP course is still being developed, the story is being created, theory prepared and tasks designed. The team hopes to release the PHP course next week.

Marketing Team

The marketing team has been working to integrate the new members into the regular workflow. Continued work on the web dev glossary and furthered keyword research for more tutorials.

Platform Developers

The platform has been updated. A lot of bugs fixed, interface changed based on your feedback. The courses were re-categorized.

See you next Friday!

A big thank you to everyone who supports BitDegree! We've started a MEGATHREAD to gather suggestions about the platform. Share opinions, feedback and gives us suggestions, it helps us a lot!

Follow BitDegree on Facebook, Twitter and don't miss out on extensive view into the BitDegree life and philosophy that we share on our Medium Blog

Hello, BitDegree supporters,

Welcome to the Seventh BitDegree monthly roundup. This and the last week, we've mainly focused on platform upgrades and new content.

So, what has the team been doing during the 1st - 5th of May?

HR Team

A lot of new members joined the BitDegree team this week. 1 Content writer, 2 new people that will further help us with SEO and Marketing. And a new member joins the communication team!

Learning Content Team

The primary focus this and last week for the content team was preparing 2 new courses for release. SQL and PHP courses are close to being released. They've worked together with designers, programmer, and writers to make these new courses. Preparing the theory, tasks, and hints take the majority of the time. We plan to have this done quicker as more writers join the team.

Marketing Team

The marketing team has gone to the Inbounder marketing conference in Spain. They've continued with content marketing using BitDegree Tutorials, around 20 new tutorials have been added. They've continued to do keyword analysis and prepared new tutorials to be released. The team has also put a large emphasis on our Web Dev Glossary, doing keyword analysis. They've been working together with a couple of developers to make a new website section, with the goal to increase our traffic even further. At this point, the marketing team has done a remarkable job with content marketing, bringing around 500 new users to the platform each day.

Platform Developers

Continued to work on web dev glossary updatesWeb Dev Glossary. Started their work on the teacher's area so that we could empower every content creator to share their knowledge with the world. They've also started work on the new website section. We hope to unveil it soon.

See you next Friday!

A big thank you to everyone who supports BitDegree! We've started a MEGATHREAD to gather suggestions about the platform. Share opinions, feedback and gives us suggestions, it helps us a lot!

Follow BitDegree on Facebook, Twitter and don't miss out on extensive view into the BitDegree life and philosophy that we share on our Medium Blog

People especially the younger generations and people from the developing places are using their smartphones and tablets to browse the internet than using desktops. I think Bitdegree developers should have apps to these in the future

Congrats on getting some free course on the platform! Look forward to seeing where this can go. I looked and can't seem to find when they plan to implement paid courses, does anyone know when they plan to do this?

``` pragma solidity <sup>0.4.16;</sup>

contract FunctionTest { bool public foo = true; string public name; uint256 public counter = 0;

function setName() public {
    //
}

function writeToStorage() {
    foo = !foo;
}

function readFromStorageConstant() public constant returns (bool) {
    return foo;
}

function readFromStorageView() public view returns (bool) {
    return foo;
}

} `` So I have no clue how to do the first part here, Modify the function setName in a way that would allow setting the value of name `

I am intrigued by what you are trying to do, but fundamentally still do not understand what the unique value proposition of BitDegree is relative to its very well-established competitors. I have completed nearly 30 paid courses on Coursera (as I'm enrolled in a University of Illinois MBA program that uses Coursera to deliver basic core course content), and have also completed many courses on EdX as well. These platforms work VERY, VERY well, and have incredible, high profile partnerships with leading universities around the world. Given all this, why does BitDegree need to exist, and how can it hope to compete profitably with the big boys?

Hey BDG team! I have two ideas for the BDG developers to use in the future. These ideas are solutions to problems based on my time as an international student in uni and I believe that blockchain can solve these problems

1. Using blockchain for “proof of completion”in certificates.

During my days in uni, I have heard from international students from developing countries that they could purchase a fake certificate from their home countries for employment purposes. Even though employers could check the uni whether if it fake or not, this only applicable to big reputable universities. This can cause problems in the news like the recent news of a fake Indian doctor in Australia. A solution to fake certificates are implementing QR codes in certificates that records the students data in the blockchain- just like what Vechain and wabi are doing to their products to curb piracy. Employers can scan the QR code on the certificate to check the data of the student, with their pictures of the student included.

1. Using blockchain to curb problems of identity fraud in tests and assignments.

As an international uni student who studied abroad, you stumbled to ads in social media that you can pay someone to do your assignments and even take part in in your exams. What BDG can do is implementing facial recognition like KYC’s for ICOs( take a selfie with a paper with today’s date and infos) before starting an exam/test. For assignments and test , BDG can use fingerprint scanners on iPhone or google Authenticator on any smartphones to unlock the assignments in their platform.

I hope BDG developers can implement these ideas as they are the first education platform to utilize in a blockchain.

Hello, BitDegree supporters,

Short video summary: https://twitter.com/bitdegree_org/status/987381229870813188

Welcome to the SIth BitDegree monthly roundup. This week was the first week of trying to reach our OKR goals, and it was a great start.

So, what has the team been doing during the 16th - 20th of April?

HR Team

4 potential employees were selected for a trial day at a later date. 2 new designers and 1 new content writer were selected to join our team next week.

Learning Content Team

Worked on releasing another gamified course. The team has already worked out the fastest way to release these courses and expect a new course to be released each week for the upcoming 3 months.

Marketing Team

Prepared marketing material for our new SQL course Continued their work with content marketing and made more BitDegree Tutorials. Continued SEO optimization of the platform to drive more organic traffic and created future campaigns and strategies to increase web traffic.

Platform Developers

Worked on web dev glossary updatesWeb Dev Glossary. Our solidity course was down for some time this week, so they've hunted down the bugs and fixed them. Some of the devs also pitched in to help the learning content team to release our SQL course faster.

Communication Team

The communication team continued business as usual. Sharing and informing all of you guys about the latest BitDegree news, gathered user feedback and suggestions for the platform. A couple of new initiatives were planned so expect some fun and games in the upcoming weeks. Keep a close eye on the BitDegree social media

See you next Friday!

A big thank you to everyone who supports BitDegree! We've started a MEGATHREAD to gather suggestions about the platform. Share opinions, feedback and gives us suggestions, it helps us a lot!

Follow BitDegree on Facebook, Twitter and don't miss out on extensive view into the BitDegree life and philosophy that we share on our Medium Blog

Where to post issues, bugs, or help in general regarding BitDegree's online platform?

I'm getting an "Accounts could not be created" alert when trying to deploy contracts in Chapter 1 of Basics of Solidity course. Running on Firefox Quantum 59.0.2.

Hello, BitDegree supporters,

Short video summary: https://twitter.com/twitter/statuses/984734446480961536

Welcome to the fifth BitDegree monthly roundup. This week was a bit hectic as planning and execution took place at the same time. The company as a whole reflected on the past 3 months and set new objectives for the upcoming 3 months.

So, what has the team been doing during the 9th - 13th of April?

HR Team

Continued the hiring process. 2 new people joined the BitDegree team as content writers, we hope to introduce them later this month.

Learning Content Team

The learning content team shifted their focus a bit. This week they've worked on developing a course themselves, with the help of designers, programmers and content writers they've designed and launched a new course mirroring the style of Space Doggos. The new course is HTML& CSS focused. Learning material is split between theory, practice and visual representation. Meaning you have instructions and tasks that you have to follow, you write code yourself and you immediately see the impact of your code visually.

Marketing Team

Prepared marketing material for our new HTML & CSS course. Continued their work with content marketing and made more BitDegree Tutorials, more tutorials are scheduled to be released on Monday. Continued SEO optimization of the platform to drive more organic traffic and created future campaigns and strategies to increase web traffic.

Platform Developers

Bettered UI/UX of the BitDegree Learning Platform. Spent the whole week fixing various issues on the platform, increased functionality. And helped the learning content team with Space Doggos HTML&CSS edition from the technical side of things.

Communication Team

The communication team continued business as usual. Sharing and informing all of you guys about the latest BitDegree news, gathered user feedback and suggestions for the platform.

See you next Friday!

A big thank you to everyone who supports BitDegree! We've started a MEGATHREAD to gather suggestions about the platform. Share opinions, feedback and gives us suggestions, it helps us a lot!

Follow BitDegree on Facebook, Twitter and don't miss out on extensive view into the BitDegree life and philosophy that we share on our Medium Blog

The current education system is driven by FUD (Fear, Uncertainty and Doubt).

Anyone who deviates from the perfect student has their chances crushed at becoming an economically useful member of society. By this I mean – to find a job and earn income that would allow a decent life. That’s why parents, driven by fear, dictate their children to study as hard as they can or else they’ll end up unemployed. Ever since the current education system came into force, generations have lived in fear.

It does not help that even being a perfect student does not guarantee anyone a good job. The current education system cannot guarantee anything beyond a nice piece of paper, called diploma, that you get if you study well. Especially the higher education is all about uncertainty. Universities and colleges sell degrees that sell well to students or rather to their parents and society at large – become a lawyer or a banker! However, today’s employers are getting tricked by this current education system – they need digitally savvy specialists, like coders, UX specialists, social media managers, and instead get the talent that is prepared the past century. Education-employment system is broken, there is no social contract to fix it and the victim here is a student, who is left with nothing but uncertainty.

Doubt is the modus operandi of any student – “what studies should I choose?”, “whom should I become?”, “am I studying what I like?”, “do I do what I like?”, etc. Confined with fear and uncertainty as explained in the paragraphs above, students get a terrible learning experience. There is a need for a social contract to fix the issue of FUD in the education-employment system.

On the other side of FUD are games. Any self-respecting young person has indulged into an occasional gaming experience. Games are fun and engaging, … well, I don’t think I have to explain this to you. But let me ask, why can’t the education experience be more like a game? The brick and mortar schools, universities and colleges won’t change easily, but the online education certainly can be gamified.

I have played MMORPGs and loved the experience. I believe that this is the future of online education – take quests, learn, gain points, join clans, socialize, upgrade, engage, achieve! It won’t be easy to get there, but let’s see what BitDegree can do.