Blockchain: The future of Academic Credentials?
Blockchain educational technology has created assessment and management tools for learner credentials that are permanent, transparent, and sustainable while giving users direct access. For academic institutions, technology can make the process of confirming and legitimizing one’s educational experience easier and more efficient. Blockchain technology makes education faster and less costly, secures academic records so that they cannot be tampered with or lost, improves record storage and transferability, and combats fraudulent claims by proving legitimacy of credentials.
Personal encrypted credentials enable users to shape lifelong learning pathways and personalizes education according to individual values and needs. They allow for the permanent documentation of both formal and informal learning based on transversal competencies, adjustable across the economic sector and responsive to situational needs. Badging was the initial response to online credentialing. Public blockchains are revolutionizing how data is stored and accessed by providing a global ledger for record management. Applying this technology to education can foster greater inclusivity with an industry standard and provide improved data security.
Standard System
Standardization is required among industry organizations to determine what success looks like. This is for the benefit of students, educators and administrators and set expectations for how data should be secured and accessed. There is a real need for a unified approach to tracking and managing student certificates from educational institutions, professional societies, trade associations, state examination boards and corporations. A single database that is easily and digitally accessed from anywhere in the world creates a standard for verified credentials, providing a universal method for storing, retrieving and sharing data.
Blockchain technology leverages cryptography for the security and verification of data. Cryptography allows instant verification of a student’s education records, matching a public and private key for public access and private ownership authentication. This method of encryption is called public key infrastructure (PKI), and protects user data from theft and tampering. But record security does not need to be confined to education records like university degrees; any type of personal data or records can be stored on a digital ledger. Blockchain technology helps to save schools time and money, providing solutions to the issues of filing, storage, and transferability. The software relies on a decentralized network of computer nodes that confirm and validate data added to the chain. This process results in digital blocks of data being hashed and added to the chain via a cryptographic link. The technicality is important; because blockchain connects data in chronological blocks, it creates a timestamp for information. Saving an academic record to the blockchain, coupled with an authorized validation from the student’s academic institution, creates a valuable data story.
If you have ever made the effort to obtain a copy of your personal education transcript from a university or college, then you are familiar with the unfortunate headache that’s involved. While blockchain technology does face some of its own developmental issues, like scaling, the great benefit of storing data on the blockchain is that the data is instantly and universally accessible. Storing data across many computers also ensures that educational data cannot be modified without validated permissions. Changes can only be applied to data when the owner provides their cryptographic keys to the network. This ensures that data remains incorruptible and immutable. This application of blockchain in education expands beyond just storage for public or private educational institutions. Records secured on-chain could include industry certifications, vocational and apprenticeship records, corporate training records and certifications from professional societies.
With all the excitement around blockchain, it can be difficult to separate the hype from reality. Used appropriately, blockchains bring significant value outside of digital assets. Adopting blockchain in education has the potential to solve real problems and deliver better outcomes for students. The technology creates an infrastructure to document, store and manage credentials and provides learners with a sustainable record of achievements they can control. It also benefits universities by reducing administrative costs and bureaucracy.
