Cardano Academy launches practicum with on-chain credentials

Cardano Academy has partnered with Andamio to launch a practicum that lets participants submit a build or pitch and claim a credential recorded on Cardano after a reviewer accepts their work.

Summary

• Participants submit a build or pitch for review before claiming an on-chain credential.
• No wallet or ADA is needed to sign up, according to the launch announcement.
• The program joins existing Academy courses, certification exams, and university education partnerships.

The Cardano Foundation announced the Cardano Academy Practicum in a Nov. 12 X post, describing a submission-based program for people putting their ideas or development work forward for assessment.

The Cardano Academy has partnered with @andamio_teams to launch the Cardano Academy Practicum.

Submit your build or pitch. Once a reviewer accepts it, claim a credential recorded on Cardano.

No wallet or ada needed to sign up. pic.twitter.com/NJ7MhKTS2O --- Cardano Foundation (@Cardano_CF) November 12, 2026

Its announcement sets out a sequence: submit the work, receive a reviewer's acceptance, then claim the credential. Registration itself does not require participants to hold Cardano's native ADA token or arrive with a cryptocurrency wallet.

Cardano Academy credentials follow a review of submitted work

A project build and a pitch are both eligible submission formats under the Foundation's announcement. The credential becomes claimable once a reviewer accepts the submission, placing assessment between the participant's work and the blockchain record.

The launch post's wallet requirement is specific to signing up. It does not describe the arrangements for holding a credential after approval, the transaction costs involved in claiming one, or whether those costs are covered for participants.

Andamio's developer documentation describes a credential process covering commitments, assessment, and claims. The platform provides tools for issuing credentials, checking which credentials a holder owns, and restricting application features based on those holdings.

Organizations can create a course or project with an identifier published on-chain and define what its credentials represent. Developers can build verification tools, directories and dashboards around existing credentials without owning the underlying course or project, according to Andamio.

The platform describes its infrastructure as live on Cardano mainnet. Its published tools cover courses, lessons, assignments, project tasks and contributors, alongside the transactions used to record activity on the network.

Academy offers exam certifications and course-completion badges

The Foundation's Academy website says its education offering serves more than 10,000 learners. Its existing options include on-demand technical and business courses, organizational masterclasses, professional certification, and access to course materials.

Within its certification program, the Foundation distinguishes badges earned through certified exams from those awarded for finishing business or technical courses. Certified badges go to learners who pass exams at authorized Pearson VUE test centers.

Other badge categories cover Venture Hub participation, masterclasses, and academic programs at participating universities. The Foundation uses Credly for sharing credentials and describes its badges as carrying metadata that can be checked online.

The refreshed Cardano Blockchain Certified Associate course has 26 units covering distributed ledgers, cryptography, consensus and Cardano's architecture. Its published syllabus includes governance through delegated representatives, staking, transaction models and scaling approaches such as Hydra and Mithril.

The associate course is self-paced and online, with its 2026 course page describing just under four hours of learning. It identifies software engineers, IT decision-makers, lecturers, researchers and students among its intended audience, alongside candidates preparing for the separate Pearson VUE certification exam.

Course topics include public-key encryption, digital signatures and the differences between account-based and unspent transaction output systems. Learners study how distributed nodes validate transactions and compare proof-of-work with proof-of-stake consensus, including Cardano's Ouroboros protocol family.

University programs include 25 sponsored places and UCLA coursework

On Oct. 22, the Foundation announced that the Academy would teach Cardano fundamentals in the University of Nicosia's Blockchain and Digital Assets course and sponsor 25 advanced-track places, as crypto.news previously reported.

The university lists Feb. 8, 2027, as the course's next starting date. Its introductory track runs through eight weeks, while advanced participants continue through week 12. Cardano's teaching contribution covers the network's fundamentals and extended unspent transaction output model.

In the United States, a September agreement with UCLA Anderson School of Management's Venture Accelerator provides for Academy content and coursework beginning in 2027. The material will enter Blockchain Cryptocurrency Applications in Business and Finance, taught by Alex Nascimento.

The agreement includes five sponsored fellowships for selected early-stage companies in UCLA Accelerate. According to the Foundation's announcement, fellows will receive funding, mentorship, and access to the Cardano ecosystem. Sponsorship of the 2027 UCLA Draper Innovation Showcase forms another part of the arrangement.

Earlier institutional training efforts included a March 2025 education partnership with SERPRO, Brazil's state-owned government technology provider. The announced program would bring Academy training to its 8,000 employees, including more than 2,000 developers, alongside cooperation on blockchain innovation and public-sector digital infrastructure.

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