In all of the world’s developed countries, the field of education is a central focus. This is due to the fact that the future of other important areas, including science, medicine, agriculture, industry and almost all others, is dependent on the country’s education levels.



See also: What is Blockchain Platform

Despite the remarkable developments in robotics and Internet and IT technologies, human resources are still the most precious resource to almost any business. Contrary to popular opinion, advanced technologies help to improve the sphere of personnel training and solve a lot of problems.


See also: Blockchain programing

How can it be used?

Single institution


One school, Holburton School in San Fransisco, a software school that offers project-based education as an alternative to college courses, has already used blockchain to store and deliver its issued certificates. It’s seen as a measure to stop fake certification. Encryption and two-factor authentification are used to create, sign-off on and place the certificate into the blockchain database. The school still gives students paper copies, but a system-created decentralised clearing number (DCN) is generated that allows authentification by employers.


See also: Blockchain programing

Groups of institutions


As educational institutions cluster and co-operate, the need for shared repositories of certification and achievement become real. An example is the group of universities, Delft, EPFL, Boston, ANU and UBC, that recently formed a codeshare-like agreement on certification. It could also be used by affiliated organisations that form a global alliance or a global group of schools. Whatever the constellation of institutions or bodies, blockchain gives them a cheap, shared resource.


National blockchain database


Education is curiously nationalistic. Even in the EU, it is a devolved issue. Within a country, however, there is a great need for a shared approach to the range of credentials that are being produced at all levels in the system: schools, colleges, universities, institutes, examination boards, trade associations, employers, and so on. There is a real need for something that sits above them all. That solution could be blockchain technology.


Global assessment


The current system of certification is not really fit for its purpose. A paper system is subject to loss, even fraud. With an increasingly mobile population of students and workers, a centralised database of credentials and achievements makes sense, whether you’re moving to another educational institution, a new job, a new country – and for refugees who have no copy of their degrees. Some sort of secure, online repository would be helpful.


CPD


Always a problem, continuing professional development (CPD) is difficult to deliver, often fragmented, and poorly tracked. Imagine a blockchain system that really did this within a profession, taking issued CPD data from conference attendance, courses, and other forms of learning. Teachers and other professionals could get inputs from trusted providers and thus be incentivised to do more CPD, if those experiences and learning opportunities were securely stored in a reputable system.


Corporate learning


Companies deliver huge amounts of training to their employees, but storing achievement is not easy. Current learning and talent management system technologies, SCORM, et al, are a bit old and tired. What’s needed is a more open but secure system for use not only internally, but also by employees when they leave an organisation.


Apprenticeships


Vocational education is now big business, as governments around the world recognise the folly of relying too heavily on purely academic institutions to deliver post-school education. In the UK, a system of three million apprenticeships is to be funded through a levy on payroll. It’s a complex business, as employers will play a stronger role in their management and delivery. How are they going to manage the process and certification? Blockchain is a real possibility, as it could offer a centralised but neatly distributed national database for the authentification of both process and certification.


Bodies of knowledge


This one’s more obscure, but imagine something like Wikipedia or Khan Academy, academic journals, OER, even research bodies, issuing proof of learning from their systems. Thanks to John Helmer for the idea of authenticating identity for access to subscription-controlled, academic content from libraries. Current systems (Open Athens, Shibboleth) use centralised ledgers and are seriously dysfunctional. Blockchain could be used here to provide a more robust authentication infrastructure.

Blockchain could be used for a myriad of learning experiences from various sources. It requires a small transaction model, and this could be where ‘eXperience API’ (xAPI), which can be used to gather evidence from micro-learning experiences, comes in handy. It is open source, the natural successor to SCORM, and stores data in Learning Record Stores. This seems like a natural route to the use of blockchain

Edited by user Monday, February 25, 2019 8:46:35 AM(UTC)  | Reason: Not specified