A new blockchain platform by an established company in the educational sector is going to enable users to earn crypto tokens as they learn – all the while making lessons exciting and ensuring billions of people around the world have access to talented instructors.

Code of Talent’s team say they want to address multiple failings in the industry which have seen learners become disengaged in boring, generic and uninteractive classrooms. This also has huge ramifications for students attempting to enter the world of work or those seeking to change careers, as a disconnect between the theory they have learned and the skills they desperately need affects their employability and leaves employers struggling to fill vacant positions for skilled jobs.

The company argues that even e-learning platforms – which use the internet to connect with students from around the world – are unable to address the inherent issues facing this important sector. This is because the content in their courses is rarely personalized and lacks human interaction from a real-life educator, resulting in “dramatic lows in terms of course completion.” According to HarvardX and MITx, only 5.5 percent people who enrolled in one of their open online courses actually completed the classes.

Micro-learning: A powerful method?

According to Code of Talent, micro-learning is the solution that instructors, learners and employers deserve. This technique involves daily learning sessions which are 10 minutes in length, in a virtual environment where there is a maximum of 40 participants per educator (also known as a “content provider.”)

In its white paper, the company claims that micro-learning can increase the speed of a student’s development by up to 300 percent – with costs also tumbling by 50 percent. This is partially because learning in chunks of between three and seven minutes better reflects the brain’s working memory and attention span.

Code of Talent’s product has already been successfully finalized, with executives claiming it has experienced “great adoption from paying customers” in industries such as pharma, banking, insurance, healthcare.

Exciting key features for learners include the ability to engage in sessions from any device – with milestones, levels, missions, points and badges gamifying their experience and making it easy for them to track their progress in real time. They can also receive instant notifications within the platform or directly to their email.

Meanwhile, instructors also benefit from an “easy and intuitive” interface which gives them the flexibility they need when designing training sessions. They can easily evaluate the progress of their participants and offer rewards or feedback, plus use video streaming in real time or on special occasions. Educators also receive a share of the token pool which has been set aside to incentivize the ecosystem’s users – and instructors who deliver the most popular and engaging lessons will be given the chance to gain Premium Content Provider status. From here, the level of their incentives will increase, and they will get the chance to charge tokens for their premium courses.

Built by an established company

Code of Talent is the brainchild of Ascendis, which has 21 years’ experience in this sector. According to the start-up’s white paper, Ascendis currently serves 550 corporate customers and 45,000 face-to-face learners on an annual basis – resulting in a turnover of €7 mln in 2017. Its latest B2B product has been developed in conjunction with Co-Factor, described as an industry awarded expert in digital engagement. Code of Talent has also established a strategic partnership with Ideologiq, a European digital innovation agency.

The start-up’s token generation event is scheduled to begin on July 9 – and by the end of the year, it aims to have opened officers in Russia, the US, India, Africa and Latin America. The first version of the Code of Talent blockchain micro-learning platform is scheduled to launch at the start of 2019, and the company hopes to attract 300,000 learners, 2,000 active educators and 2,000 micro-learning courses by the second quarter of 2020.