Zero-1 #0 - 2021 Year in Review
As we step into 2022, we are motivated even more by the love and support that we have received from the community over the last few months.
When we started NextLeap in May 2021, we were driven by the challenge of solving the widening skills gap in the workforce. But as we step into 2022, we are motivated even more by the love and support that we have received from the community over the last few months.
8 months in, we have had 1000+ learners across 10 countries enrolling into our first set of learning programs. The feedback has been very encouraging with each live learning session getting a 4.5/5 on average. And we loved the appreciation posts from our learners! Thank you for supporting us.
Like any early-stage start-up, there were a lot of learnings across the board. We share the top 3 here:
For true learning experiences to come to fruition, the three components that need to come together are andragogy/pedagogy, community, and technology. We believe that the new age of edtech will be driven by a focus on these and we want to be the pioneers here.
First, we learned how andragogy (learning methods used in adult education) can be effective when focused on reflection, application-orientedness, and peer-driven models. Things that worked for us – case-based learning, gamification of the learning experiences, the tangibility of learning outcomes via hands-on projects, learning circles to drive peer-peer learning. We are continuing to evolve on this front and our Learning Experience Design team has some exciting plans for this year.
Second, community building is hard but if you are clear about why you are building the community and how it lends itself to drive learning, the task becomes easier. And just having a Slack group/Discord server is not the equivalent of a community – there’s a difference between audience and community. For the first few months, we just listened and listened and that has given us a very good idea of how we want to build the community. A lot is brewing on this front and we can’t wait to start rolling them out this year.
Third, the pandemic saw Zoom, Slack, Discord, Notion, etc being used widely for learning. Unfortunately, none of them are built for learning and we experienced that first hand. We are excited about what we are building on this front and our learners and community members will experience them firsthand this year.
If you have a team that breathes the vision day in and day out, building towards the future can be fun. We built out our manifesto and have an amazing team of 20 now that makes work fun. We were initially uncertain whether the remote first culture we have is going to work out but it has been great so far. And in the process, we learned that trust, not track is the way to operate in the remote first world. In fact, one of our values is “We trust and help each other to succeed”. No, leave tracking, no performance review “cycles” (we do it for each one on a 6 monthly rolling basis), flexible work hours are some of the policies that have worked for us.
The purpose of our existence is real and the current situation is a bit scary. The half-life of skills is down to almost 4 years now. The skills gap is a massive problem today – as organizations grow, complexity in running the business grows at a faster pace. Unfortunately, the talent density starts to shrink with this growth as there are no good avenues to drive continuous learning and upskilling – L&D is mostly broken or non-existent in organizations, online learning platforms focus on teaching and not learning and hence suffer from low engagement rates. The future for learning will be decentralized and continuous which paves the way for learning networks like NextLeap where learning is participatory and many-many.
We started NextLeap with a goal of helping professionals grow in their careers and that translates to learning new skills, building a set of credentials that showcase proof of skill, building an active network, and getting access to better opportunities. And we are building towards these via a modern learning network that resembles a university in the cloud.
And the community will be buzzing every day with resources to help you. Take a look here and we would love for you to participate in growing the community and helping others like you.
Oh, and yes, we are excited about the opportunity that Web3 holds in the future of learning. We believe on-chain credentials that show your proof of work will be the new resume. So, to that effect, you will now be able to earn NFTs on NextLeap as you demonstrate your skills via capstone projects in our learning programs and skill bounties. Not just that, the NFTs will earn you exclusive access to more learning resources. So, keep learning and earning!
Thank you for helping us grow in 2021. We can’t be more excited about what’s in store for 2022. We hope you are too!
Look forward to learning with you in the New Year.