Hey everyone,
I’ve been reflecting on how to make DotCodeSchool more valuable to the community, and came across the idea of creating tailored skill pathways for different developer personas.
What is DotCodeSchool?
DotCodeSchool is an interactive learning platform aimed at helping developers build real-world Web3 apps, specifically within the Polkadot ecosystem. The goal is to make Polkadot development accessible to everyone — from beginners taking their first steps to experienced developers looking to deepen their knowledge.
DotCodeSchool emphasizes hands-on projects and practical applications rather than theoretical concepts alone. We believe that the best way to learn Web3 development is by building and experimenting with real tools and frameworks, just as you would in the field.
Why Skill Pathways?
Polkadot’s ecosystem is diverse and has room for developers from various backgrounds — each with unique skills, motivations, and learning preferences. Right now, the challenge is to provide structured, engaging guidance that meets the needs of each type of developer. Platforms like Codecademy use skill-specific pathways to increase engagement and success rates because they make learning feel relevant and progressively rewarding (progressive overload).
By creating dedicated learning paths for each developer type, we can leverage their existing skills while gradually introducing more complex concepts specific to Polkadot. I think this will make the onboarding process is smoother, more relevant, and ultimately more successful.
The Six Developer Personas
To make DotCodeSchool truly valuable, we need to recognize that not all developers are the same. Polkadot’s ecosystem attracts a diverse range of developers, each bringing unique skills, motivations, and goals. To create effective learning paths, I’m focusing on these six key personas:
- Frontend Developers: Focus on building interactive dApps with wallet integration and real-time data.
- Backend Developers: Create APIs and data services that interact with blockchain data.
- DevOps Engineers: Run and maintain nodes, ensure network reliability, automate updates and build monitoring systems.
- Smart Contract Developers: Build decentralized apps and services on Plaza or using Ink!.
- Core Blockchain Developers (Runtime, Pallets, Nodes): Develop custom pallets and parachain runtimes.
- Data Analysts and Indexers: Extract and analyze on-chain data for insights and dashboards.
Why Personalizing These Paths Matters:
By understanding each persona’s skills, motivations, and needs, we can make learning experiences that resonate, keep them engaged, and make the journey rewarding at every step. Instead of generic tutorials, we can offer progressive, hands-on projects that help them build real, “show-offable” applications on Polkadot.
This structured approach not only helps newcomers get started but also ensures that as they progress, they see clear, tangible growth in their skills — keeping them hooked on building with Web3 tech.
What I Mean by Skill Pathways:
When I say “skill pathways,” I’m not talking about building new tech features or complicated onboarding flows. I’m talking about writing well-crafted, carefully curated content that caters specifically to each developer type.
Focusing on making the learning process rewarding and practical by offering:
- Quick wins: Low-commitment, instantly gratifying mini-projects (30min-1h).
- Step-Up Challenges: Building on small successes to boost confidence (within a day or two).
- Project Sprints: Practical applications to solidify concepts (1-2 weeks).
- Advanced Exploration: Delving deeper into ecosystem-specific skills (time commitment here will vary based on user-specific interest).
- Mastery Projects: Real-world, portfolio-ready applications (4-6 weeks).
- Community Contribution: Encouraging learners to share their projects and insights (buildondot.com to list community vetted ideas, ecosystem bounties, polkadot-sdk issues, etc. for students to work on).
Request For Your Input:
I’d love your feedback on this idea to ensure we’re moving in the right direction. So here are my questions to you:
- Does this approach make sense to you?
- Do you think it will be valuable to the community?
- Which top three pathways should I focus on first, and in what order?
- Would you like to contribute or share your own learning experiences?
PS - I’d also like to make an open call for community contributions.
DotCodeSchool is fully open-source, and we’ve recently revamped our publishing system to support MDX tutorials and articles. You can now include interactive features like quizzes, making it easier than ever to contribute content and make learning engaging. Here’s a quick video demonstrating just how easy it is now:
https://x.com/i/status/1920064594082742526
If you’re interested in contributing in any way to this effort, I would love to hear from you. Your contributions can help shape the future of how developers learn and build on Polkadot and they will directly shape the direction of DotCodeSchool.
If this speaks to you, please do reach out to me directly on Telegram: Contact @batmancodes
