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Course Design

Learning Methodology

SPO Academy employs Project-Based Learning (PBL) to ensure practical application of business concepts. Students work through real-world scenarios and challenges that mirror actual SPO operations using the Edify 4D Impact Leadership Framework.

Course Structure

The course is organised into 8 modules (000-700), each with lessons and one assignment. The full structure — every element and the student learning targets a student works through — is in the Module Reference.

Course content follows the Edify Business Planning Framework, taking the operator from understanding their changing environment (100), through the toolkit and their own essence (200-300), across the three biomes (400-600), to an assembled business playbook (700).

Learning Outcomes

Upon completion, students will be able to:

  • Conduct comprehensive business audits using the Full Value Canvas methodology
  • Develop compelling vision statements and value propositions aligned with IKIGAI principles
  • Apply the 4D Impact Leadership Framework (Discover, Define, Design, Deploy, Review)
  • Navigate VUCA and BANI environments with exponential thinking
  • Analyze all three biomes (Internal, Market, External) for strategic decision-making
  • Create sustainable business models tailored to stake pool operations
  • Build comprehensive business plans using the Edify Business Planning Framework
  • Implement scenario planning and risk management strategies

Assessment Methods

One assignment per module — eight in total, all live on the platform. They are applied rather than recall-based: each asks the operator to enact that module's learning on their own pool and produce the section of their business plan it enables, so the assignments accumulate into the Module 700 playbook rather than standing alone.

ModuleAssignmentWhat the learner produces
000Programme IntroductionTheir starting point: pool today, why they run it, what "working" would mean
100Your Changing WorldA disruption brief on their own operating conditions
200Edify Full Value AuditA first Full Value Audit — the baseline later modules revise
300Your Finance ModelEssence, value model and finance model, with the through-line between them
400Your Market BiomeThe five propositions, written as claims defensible to a delegator
500Your 360 Internal AuditCommercial and relationship asset inventories, correcting the Module 200 baseline
600Your External BiomeExternal forces, funding options, and the relationships they depend on
700Your Business PlaybookThe capstone: assembled plan, dashboard measures, a scenario test, next steps

Each is deliberately short — roughly fifteen to thirty minutes, structured as tables and one-line answers, with the capstone assembled from work already done. An assessment that does not get completed evidences nothing.

Coverage: all 39 student learning targets across the eight modules are evidenced by a module assignment. The mapping is generated from the assignment files against the payload sent to Andamio, so it cannot drift from what is live.

Learners submit their answers as assignment evidence in Andamio, where it is hashed for on-chain verification and reviewed before credentials can be claimed.