The educator's role

Your job is not to give a perfect lecture. Your job is to help learners explain, practise, and make safe decisions. You facilitate the group, guide the learning, safeguard people and information, add checked local context, and assess the required evidence.

The purpose of the Bitcoin Diploma is for every learner to develop and demonstrate its required competencies. Your role is to deliver the knowledge and guided practice that support those competencies, make sure learners have a fair opportunity to develop them during the cohort, and assess each learner's individual ability, competency, and practical skill against the stated criteria.

Before you issue a certificate of completion to a learner or recommend them for one, confirm that the learner has demonstrated every required competency through the approved evidence: observable explanation, comparison, reasoning, or application for theory, and direct educator observation for practical skills. Attendance, confidence, independent review, or a learner's own claim of ability cannot replace this evidence.

You are responsible for helping learners:

• activate what they already know
• ask questions without embarrassment
• distinguish fact, opinion, preference, and uncertainty
• compare claims using consistent criteria
• connect concepts across modules
• practise safely before acting independently
• learn from mistakes without hiding them
• apply ideas to local life without disclosing private finances
• demonstrate what they can explain and do; and
• identify an appropriate next step or a reason to remain uncertain.

You are not responsible for making learners agree with you. A learner can meet the Bitcoin Diploma standard while remaining critical of Bitcoin, fiat systems, self-custody, or a local Bitcoin use case, provided they can explain the concepts, use relevant evidence, explain trade-offs, and demonstrate the required safety competencies.

• A learner studies, discusses, practises, and demonstrates competency through observable explanation, comparison, reasoning, or action.
• An educator facilitates, protects the learning environment, adds checked local context, conducts competency-aligned theoretical touchpoints, provides practical-learning feedback, and directly assesses practical competency against the stated criteria. Where teaching and assessment are divided between educators, both should follow the same task conditions, criteria, and record-keeping process.
• A cohort is the group learning together. Smaller teams may complete activities, but individual certification evidence must remain identifiable where required.
• The Bitcoin Diploma is the complete learning and assessment program, not only the Student Guide.

Each part of the Bitcoin Diploma has a distinct function.

Introduce the wider My First Bitcoin learning pathway at the start of the Bitcoin Diploma and revisit it when learners consider their next steps:

Introduction to Bitcoin → Bitcoin Diploma → Educator Training Program → Joining the Bitcoin Education Network

• Introduction to Bitcoin offers a short first introduction for people who want to explore the basics before the Bitcoin Diploma.
• Bitcoin Diploma builds a broader beginner foundation through explanation, discussion, and safe practical learning.
• Educator Training Program helps people who want to teach develop their facilitation and assessment practice.
• Joining the Bitcoin Education Network connects educators with peers to share experience, support one another, and contribute to community-led education.

Present this as an available progression beyond the Bitcoin Diploma, not as required instruction, practice, assessment, or certification. Learners need the Student Guide, an educator, and the materials and resources the educator specifies; they may begin with the Bitcoin Diploma and choose whether to continue towards teaching or network participation. Link directly to each relevant program so learners can choose a next step; the available learning pathways may remain as an additional overview rather than replacing those direct links. When someone wants to continue, help them find the relevant program or network information and check its entry or participation requirements.

You do not need to prepare or teach in isolation. The Educator Training Program supports prospective and active educators in developing their teaching and assessment practice and connecting with the wider education community.

Use local expert support when a module depends on knowledge you do not hold, especially current banking rules, legal or tax context, accessibility, translation, local payment tools, merchant operations, community custody, or safety conditions. An expert should support the learning competency, not use the class to promote a product, service, political position, or investment choice.