BitMEX Academy Operator’s Course
Roles: Video Production Consultant, UI/UX Designer, Instructional Designer
In 2021 BitMEX started an initiative to educate new cryptocurrency traders with instructional media.
Those of us who are already immersed in crypto often forget that there are many others who are clamoring to learn more, but are unsure of where to turn and intimidated by the sheer amount of information out there. BitMEX Academy will evolve into a central gathering place for people, no matter their level of knowledge, to come together and build practical crypto knowledge.
—Alexander Höptner, CEO of BitMEX
I joined the BitMEX Academy team and helped them design an instructional content strategy for video courses and social media. They were interested in creating a choose-your-own adventure video experience similar to Manhattan Prep’s Interact, which customizes video content based on learners’ choices.
Here is the introductory lesson that is part of a suite of 10 lessons:
Pre-Production & Production
I helped the provost of BitMEX Academy define in-house roles for production and vet an agency who could record narrated video lectures in a studio in Singapore.
To translate technical information into video, I worked with content experts to define learning objectives and write scripts with descriptions of visuals that would accompany the narration. I shared a sample flow chart to help the team map out their branching content and interactions, anticipating learner paths through the lessons.
Post-Production
I worked alongside an in-house designer from BitMEX’s marketing team to create an interactive branding guide. Taking cues from existing brand guides, we designed the UI and UX inside our interactive lessons to be consistent with the experience of BitMEX’s brand.
Distribution
Our interactive video lessons needed to be hosted on the Academy website in a Learning Management System (LMS) where we could display multiple choice quizzes and track learner data. There are many options for standing up an LMS including outsourcing development to a third-party vendor, choosing a subscription service, or developing a custom solution in-house. I identified requirements for hosting our interactive videos, designed sample UI screens, and worked with in-house developers to choose a LMS that fit the needs of their project.
Our course was a successful prototype that laid the foundation for XD Academy, a certification program and educational community centered around blockchain and cryptocurrency expertise.