The Polkadot Blockchain Academy (PBA) is expanding its faculty!

With plans to deliver a new online experience and to continue our on-site offerings in 2025, and in an effort to broaden Polkadot representation among our faculty,  the PBA is calling for interested contributors to join our mission. 

Locations: Remote (global), filming locations in Europe (2024), on-site PBA in Americas and/or Europe (2025)
Time commitment: (after onboarding, time commitment depends on subject matter): minimum of approx. 7 working days per quarter (details follow)
Application process: Includes 2-3 interviews with PBA staff and reviews of your technical/educational submissions

About the Academy

The Polkadot Blockchain Academy aims to support Polkadot's journey to success by nurturing a strong developer community and providing essential educational resources. Its educational program covers the conceptual underpinnings and the hands-on application of blockchain technology. 

The majority of its course materials (aside from assignments) spanning its seven modules can be found via this open source repository. Selected lecture videos from PBA2-4 are in the process of being released on the PBA’s Youtube channel. 

As a collective of proven Polkadot innovators and a melting pot of ideation for Polkadot’s future, the PBA is proud to embody a culture of collaboration, learning, and fun. The mission of Polkadot and its education is very near and dear to many of the PBA’s contributors. This program is a rewarding way for Polkadot’s brightest builders to give back to the community and its newcomers, all-the-while playing an intellectually-minded role in shaping Polkadot’s future alongside fellow experts.

Since its conception under the vision and leadership of Gavin Wood in summer of 2022, the Academy has delivered four, 4-5 week, in-person programs in Europe, the Americas, and Asia. The upcoming edition, from May 20 - June 20, offers a first-ever, synchronous remote learning experience for a pilot cohort of 50 students, in addition to the on-site program of approximately 85 students in Singapore. This first step online marks our scaling and expansion beyond in-person learning, as we prepare to release a dedicated curriculum for remote learners by the end of 2024, under the current working title “PBA-X”.

For more on our team and past results, you can have a look at our latest treasury proposal.

About the Position

The PBA is delivered through the indispensable efforts of Instructors and Teaching Assistants (TAs) who are collectively responsible for creating and refining the PBA’s core content, delivering lecturers, creating, delivering, and grading assignments, mentoring students, and advising on the PBA’s direction and mission, under the ultimate supervision of Gavin Wood. 

In the lead-up to the PBA, Faculty members work closely with the PBA Staff and its curriculum producer to develop and iterate PBA content based on need and learnings from previous programs. For the PBA’s on-site programming, this position would include travel and on-site delivery of lectures and assignments. For the upcoming PBA-X (online) program, this position would include on-location practice and lecture video recording.

These roles are a part-time responsibility with occasional, scheduled periods of nearly full-time work and responsibilities, particularly for lecture delivery and assignment grading, ranging from 1-5 days in a row. Days of work per quarter typically vary between 5-20 days for our faculty members, depending on role and scope of responsibility. Most of our faculty have full-time commitments aside from the PBA and can flexibly balance their PBA responsibilities with other engagements; this balance comes with a shared understanding that this commitment is for the greater good of Polkadot and therefore is an acceptable diversion from normal duties at a parachain, ecosystem project, etc.

Instructor Responsibilities:

• Acts as sole- or jointly- responsible leader for curricular module vision and delivery for the assigned Subject Matter(s)
• Develop and refine educational content for the PBA
• Deliver live lectures and create lecture recordings
• Create and deliver assignments and grading criteria
• Lead live office hours for students
• Work closely with the PBA Staff to determine schedule and timely delivery of a unified educational program
• Where relevant, support PBA alumni initiatives, including continuous learning programming, alumni meetups, hackathons, pitch days, etc.

Teaching assistant responsibilities:

• Support Instructor in content creation
• Deliver selected lectures if appropriate, necessary, and/or desired
• Support students with queries and assignments
• Provide live classroom support to Instructor
• Support assignment administration and grading
• Engage with online course learners on discussion forums
• Work closely with the PBA Staff to ensure timely delivery of a unified educational program
• Where relevant, support PBA alumni initiatives, including continuous learning programming, alumni meetups, hackathons, pitch days, etc.

Who we’re looking for

We’re looking for skilled and motivated Lecturers and Teaching Assistants who have:

• Previous teaching and/or presenting experience, preferably in a technical setting
• An active role as a contributor to Polkadot and/or an ecosystem project, ideally for at least 2 years
• Technical subject matter* knowledge as a builder, researcher, and/or ecosystem contributor
• A collaborative approach to working with faculty, staff, and students
• Interest in improving educational offerings for Polkadot
• A personal commitment to Polkadot and its betterment as a whole

* Advanced working knowledge of 1 or more of the following subject matters is required:

• Cryptography
• Economic theory, Tokenomics
• Blockchain (Consensus, Networking, Transactions models, incentives, etc.)
• Governance
• Smart Contracts (ink! & Solidity)
• Polkadot-sdk (Substrate, FRAME)
• Polkadot protocol (Parchains/Coretime, Consensus, Cumulus, etc.)
• XCM
• Other (prospective new content areas): DevOps, Parachain/Launch and Maintenance, Front End Development

What we offer

• The opportunity to contribute and shape Polkadot’s premier educational program
• Collaboration with distinguished engineers and leaders from across Polkadot. Our existing faculty is primarily made up of Polkadot Fellows and long-time contributors
• Funded business travel to on-site PBAs and filming locations to work directly with fellow faculty, staff, and an eager and qualified student base
• Priority access to recruitment of PBA students/alumni for your Polkadot project
• In-person opportunities to connect with peers in the Polkadot community, beyond simply meeting to teach, the PBA should be a spawning ground for ideas and projects for Polkadot, created by new Faculty alliances as well as inter- faculty and student/alumni collaborations.
• Potential membership opportunity in the upcoming Polkadot Education Collective.