Education is becoming diverse, decentralized, and disintermediated. Blockchain can make a difference here.

FREMONT, CA: Blockchain is used in payment processing and money transfers, supply chains, data sharing, data backup, equity trading, and more. Applying it to the education sector is entirely unexpected. However, it bears a lot of benefits. Blockchain is a decentralized distributed database that could transform the economy, governance, and the functioning of organizations. Blockchain is applicable within individual educational institutions, national and international educational bodies, and groups of educational institutions. Education is becoming diverse, decentralized, and disintermediated. Thus, educational institutes need to maintain reputation, proof of learning, and trust in certification. Here are a few ways Blockchain could be used in the education sector.

Single institution

A San Francisco-based software school is leveraging Blockchain to store and deliver issued certificates. The school uses blockchain to stop fake certification. With the encryption and two-factor authentification, the school creates, sign-off and place certificate in the blockchain database. Although the school provides the students with paper copies, they have a system-created decentralized clearing number (DCN) that enables authentification by employers.

 Groups of institutions

The need for shared repositories of certification is becoming real as education institutions are clustering and co-operating. Universities such as EPFL, Delft, Boston, ANU, and UBC have formed an agreement on certification. Affiliated organizations that form a global alliance or a global group of schools can also use it. Blockchain offers cheap and shared resources.

Global assessment

A paper certification system has its drawbacks, such as fraud, and is subject to loss. Whether a student is moving to another educational institution, a new job, or a new country, a centralized database of credentials and achievements is a practical option. Owing to this, it is popular among students and workers. The first obvious application for blockchain is assessment. As of now, it is a mess, and Sony Global Education who has a blockchain-based platform, wants schools and universities to use blockchain to share data with third parties.  

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Corporate learning

Companies that deliver enormous amounts of training to their employees face the challenge of storing their achievements. Current learning and talent management systems are a bit old, and organizations today need an open but secure system not just internally but also for employees when they leave the organization.  

Apprenticeships

Governments around the world recognize the drawbacks of relying on academic institutions to deliver post-school education. Thus, vocational education is now big business. Three million apprenticeships are to be funded through a levy on the payroll in the UK. As employees play a stronger role in their management and delivery, it becomes a complicated business.

Blockchain has applications at the individual, institutional, group, national, and international levels. The technology is becoming the focus instead of old hierarchical structures. However, blockchain will be a helping hand in the education sector rather than taking over it. In the future, teachers and learners could use blockchain and cut out institutions. Blockchain has its issues, such as data-regulation. Despite the problems, blockchain has disrupted several industries, and with the robust network, it will become the center of a lot of organizations when it comes to sharing information.

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