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tags: Andamio
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# Andamio Project-Based Learning Framework

Education does not end when we graduate from school. People are always learning, discovering new interests, and engaging in new projects. There is always something new to learn. Before diving into the new technology that enables Andamio, let's take a brief look at the educational philosophy that inspires it.

Project-Based Learning (PBL) is an educational model that emphasizes relevance, experimentation, student decision-making, and collaboration. It is the model best suited for addressing the [Education](/lx5ktf9QTBytnB8LC2EHMA), [Organization](/fbsCsbnhSgO1RTJuTF72Og), and [Oracle](/_Q0mNyZ6TjibX5vmfW8C-w) problems that were introduced earlier in this paper. Anyone engaged in PBL has an opportunity to learn by doing things. Where industrial education models emphasized compliance *from* and competition *among* students, Project-Based Learning gives students a chance to demonstrate mastery of what they have learned, to work on meaningful projects, and to collaborate with other people to achieve their goals.

Organizations use Andamio to deliver "PBL Courses" that onboard new Contributors. "Contributors" are broadly defined, and can take many kinds: students, new team members (full-time, part-time, or contractors), developers in an open-source project, clients, investors, or even general users.

Contributors develop new skills while learning about the organization hosting the Andamio course. Along the way, Contributors meet potential collaborators and decide how to spend their time, while building an on-chain record of project-contribution and skill-mastery that is used in two ways:
1. Internally: Organizations create access thresholds for Contribution and Governance
2. Externally: Contributor records are shared across a network of Organizations

In this section, we'll take a closer look at the structure of PBL Courses. First, we will describe the Andamio PBL Content Framework. Then, we will outline the Andamio PBL Course Framework.

## Andamio PBL Content Framework
### How is Content Organized in a PBL Course?

- **COURSE:** An Organization creates a Course.
- **MODULE:** A Course consists of one or more Modules
- **STUDENT LEARNING TARGET:** Each Module consists of one or more Student Learning Targets
- **LESSON:** A Module can include one or more Lessons that address the Student Learning Targets, to guide students in learning
- **PROJECT:** A Module can include one or more Projects that allow students to demonstrate mastery of the Student Learning Targets

> Figure 1: A Course has one or more Modules. Each Module has one or more Student Learning Targets (SLTs). SLTs can be mapped flexibly to Lessons and/or Projects.

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### What is a Student Learning Target?
The atomic unit of an Andamio PBL Course is a Student Learning Target (SLT). The purpose of education is to help people learn and be able to do new things. SLTs provide a clear example of what students should know and be able to do after completing a Course, Module, Lesson, or Project. They are written as "I can..." statements that put students at the center of their own learning.

Here are some examples of Student Learning Targets:
- I can make a contribution to an open source project using git.
- I can create a Cardano NFT that adheres to CIP-25 standards.
- I understand how Datum is used in Plutus validators.

> These examples are taken from the Plutus Project Based Learning course(https://plutuspbl.io/), by Gimbalabs. You can see [a full list of SLTs here](https://plutuspbl.io/get-started/modules).

Every SLT describes a specific, measurable goal for students. The goals are measurable because there will be evidence of Mastery for each. For example:

| Student Learning Target | Evidence |
| -------- | -------- |
| I can make a contribution to an open source project using git. | Successful Merge/Pull Request to Git repo |
| I can create a Cardano NFT that adheres to CIP-25 standards. | On-chain minting transaction; Student holds a new NFT in a wallet |
| I understand how Datum is used in Plutus validators. | Student writes a Validator with Datum |

SLTs should be specific enough for students to know, independently, when they have achieved mastery. Students should not have to wait for the approval of a teacher or authority figure to know that they know what they know. SLTs are built to empower students to be ["leaders of their own learning"](https://eleducation.org/resources/leaders-of-their-own-learning-chapter-1-learning-targets/), and they are the seeds of a shift away from the power dynamics of industrial education models.

### Why Student Learning Targets?

The purpose of education should never be to train students for blind compliance. The goal of education is to help people learn and be able to do new things. So although Andamio provides different tools for how to share lesson content, it does not prescribe how lessons must be structured. What Andamio does prescribe is that the first step in building any Course is to write a list of Student Learning Targets. In Andamio, you will not find box-checking tools. You will not find surveillance practices. You will not find extensive administrative tools.

Instead, you will write SLTs. Then, your task is to figure out how to help learners and new contributors to achieve and demonstrate mastery of those learning targets. The Andamio Network provides spaces to connect with other organizational leaders and PBL practioners, working together, sharing methods, and experimenting to find the best ways to help students achieve each learning goal.

### "Lessons" and Student Learning Targets
In an Andamio Module, educational content can include text and video. A module can be divided into "Lessons", where each lesson focuses on one Student Learning Target, or SLTs can be combined across a series of lessons. The content is flexible.

Andamio is built on Markdown Documentation, which makes it easy to share content across Course instances in the Andamio Network. If you are new to Markdown, we've got you covered. In the [Andamio Onboarding Course](coming soon!), you can learn-by-doing how to use Andamio. One of the Student Learning Targets is:
- I can write a lesson in Markdown and add it to an Andamio PBL Course.

### Student Learning Targets and Credentials
The practice of writing Course SLTs creates space for organizations to practice making decisions. When starting to build a Course, people in an organization must first answer the questions:
1. What is the list of SLTs for this Course?
2. What does mastery of each SLT look like?
3. How will we know if a learner has mastered a Student Learning Target?

These are practical, political questions that can be debated, and organizational leaders must iterate and compromise to reach agreement on the set of SLTs in any course. Once a list of SLTs is established, it should not change. The learning targets form a kind of contract for what organizations will deliver and what students will learn - and as such, they can be encoded on-chain.

After a Course is published, its list of SLTs becomes a public document: a message to the outside world about what the course seeks to accomplish. Potential students, collaborators, and other organizations can review a list of SLTs and decide whether completion of the course is sufficient to open new opportunties to students who complete it. They can also review the list of evidence for each SLT and decide whether it is sufficient to represent mastery of the learning targets, and once again, whether completion of the course represents a sufficient "credential" for further opportunities.

### Student Learning Targets and Projects
To plan a PBL Course, we start by writing Student Learning Targets. After the SLTs are created, the real fun begins. Course builders must create Projects that students can complete to demonstrate mastery of the SLTs. While SLTs are fixed, Projects and course content can change over time. One Project can serve as evidence of multiple SLTs - even SLTs from different Modules. For example, in [Plutus PBL 2023](https://plutuspbl.io), there is [a Module guiding students through the "PPBL Faucet Project"](https://plutuspbl.io/modules/204/slts). In each step, students demonstrate what they have learned about SLTs in prior Modules.

### Course Modularity
Just like SLTs can be re-used in different Modules, different Modules can be shared among courses. Your organization might want to create several courses for different functions of your business. However, all courses might use a single Onboarding Module that is relevant to all new Contributors, and that can be included at the start of each unique course.

- Modules can be shared among courses
- SLTs can be share among modules, courses, and organizations

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## Andamio PBL Course Framework
Next, let's zoom out and think about about PBL Courses are organized. A PBL Course can guide students through all or some of the following learning phases:

**1. Onboarding**
**2. Building Background Knowledge (BBK)**
**3. Specialization + Contribution**
**4. Governance**

> Figure 2. The PBL Framework. High-level overview of the framework used for Gimbalabs' Plutus Project-Based Learning program for 2023

### Onboarding
In order to participate in an Organization or contribute to Projects, there are certain pre-requisites that must be met. New Contributors must understand what an Organization does and why it exists. There are usually some technical requirements to getting started.

For example, new users might need to have a light wallet installed in a browser, new developers might need to install a software development kit (SDK), or new contributors might need to create an account with a third-party project-management system. Tasks like these can be included in an Onboarding Module.

By starting a course with some simple, actionable learning targets, we allow students to get some quick wins. When someone is successful on the first task, then they are likely to keep learning. Here are some examples of Student Learning Targets in an onboarding module for Cardano developers:

> Figure 3. Examples of Student Learning Targets in an Onboarding Module, from Plutus PBL 2023. Want to see it action? [Try the module and learn by doing!](https://plutuspbl.io/modules/100/slts) :tada:

#### Evidence of Mastery
Mastery requires evidence. Often, evidence can be publicly audited, but not always. For example, in the list above, SLTs 100.2 and 100.4 create on-chain evidence. Therefore, it is easy to know whether a student can "get free tAda on the pre-production testnet" or "mint a PPBL Contributor Token" - all we have to do is query the blockchain.

On the other hand, we cannot assess with certainty that someone knows how to safely store their keys, as in SLT 100.3. It is certainly a learning target to be mastered, but sometimes, students will decide whether they have met a goal.

The different kinds of evidence, and the fact that students must be aware of what they are learning, is an important part of how PBL cultivates student autonomy and agency - evolving traits that are encouraged by Web3 in general.

> :mortar_board: Now, please excuse us while we turn our attention to you, dear reader.
>
> This discussion of Mastery is itself an example of "Onboarding". After reading it, what questions do you have? Are you starting to have ideas about SLTs you could write for your organization and how you'd gather evidence of mastery?
>
> If you're on that journey, then great - now *you* are Onboarded to the Andamio Network!

### Building Background Knowledge

Building Background Knowledge modules dive into the details. Projects are helpful for building background knowledge, in several ways:

**1. Projects allow students to practice with new skills in real context.** When learning through projects, students create evidence of mastery along the way. After completing a BBK Module, students will have new knowledge and skills, and might also have a portfolio of work.

**2. Projects allow students to address multiple learning targets at the same time**, and to see new connections between SLTs. When we make connections between new and existing knowledge, [we evolve our "Schema" (or "mental models")](https://blog.mindresearch.org/blog/perception-action-cycle) about how things work.

**3. Projects make space for students to collaborate with new people.** This way, we can build background knowledge not only about the topics we're learning, but also about our future collaborators.

Here are some example of learning targets in a BBK Module:

> Figure 4. Examples of Student Learning Targets in a BBK Module, from Plutus PBL 2023. [See it action](https://plutuspbl.io/modules/203/slts).

### Specialization + Contribution
As people move deeper into Projects, Organizations, or PBL Courses, they naturally begin to specialize. After onboarding to an organization and building relevant background knowledge, we start to recognize our interests and special talents. We gravitate toward certain work, and start to contribute. No one can be an expert at everything. Recognizing this leads us into deeper collaborations with people whose skills complement our own.

Contributing plays a key role in Specialization. Every time we make a contribution to a project, we learn a bit more, and further refine our specialized skills. Just like our accomplishments in a PBL Course, our contributions to an organization are evidence of our capabilities.

Specialization and Contribution can take the form of tangible outcomes, or they can take the form of research. That is why Research and Development projects are a natural outcome in this phase of a PBL Course.

No one has to keep the same specializations forever. At any time, contributors can shift to a different specialization pathway - or even to a different organization in the Andamio network - changing course, and learning something new.

Here are examples of learning targets for students specializing in Plutus development:

> Figure 5. Examples of Student Learning Targets in a Specialization Module, from Plutus PBL 2023. [See it action](https://plutuspbl.io/modules/302/slts).

### Governance
When someone contributes to an organization they should earn a say in how the organization works. Andamio allows organizations to decide what the relationship between Contribution and Governance should be. In the next section, [Andamio Smart Contracts](/UY0aKK4pR5GiHSgYPB1Deg), we will investigate how roles are defined and granted within Andamio. One way to grant Governance rights is to give them to any Contributor who has made a sufficient number of Contributions.

The Andamio Governance Engine provides an alternative to token-weighted decision-making systems. We are running a series of experiments in organization design and treasury management, and will host a series of community meetings on these topics in Q4 of 2023.

## Summary
PBL Courses consist of Modules, Student Learning Targets, Lessons, and Projects that be used flexibly to onboard new contributors to organizations and projects. Course content is re-usable.

Student Learning Targets are the interface that an organization can use to connect to the Andamio Network, and can be used at any phase of a PBL Course, or any stage in the growth of an organization, enabling contributor onboarding, building background knowledge, specialization, contribution, and decision-making.

The Andamio PBL Framework is designed for flexible use by organizations with different goals. Some organizations are focused on teaching newcomers how to use their product or contribute to their work, and build PBL Courses with comprehensive Onboarding Modules. Other organizations are focused on deploying treasury funds to expert contributors, and only need to publish brief Onboarding and BBK Modules in order to prepare contributors to start working.

Andamio blurs the line between "learner", "contributor", and "decision-maker" - because in evolutionary organizations, everyone has opportunities to practice all three roles.