Disruption Readiness of Blockchain Education
Blockchain technology has the power to revolutionize the education industry to the core by offering a secure, transparent, and efficient system for managing learning records and facilitating learning.
In the future, education will embrace blockchain, securing the quality and accessibility of education while creating a more connected and technologically friendly environment.
Introduction:
Education has moved from traditional classroom settings to a more virtual and hybrid learning environment that started with the lessons learnt during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Blockchain, with its power as a game changer, will revolutionize the education system and provide tamperproof, secure, and transparent platforms for academic record storage and sharing, jumping into the future.
Blockchain technology is expected to change the educational sector through a new era of creativity and efficiency.
Blockchain and the internet form the foundation of the 4th Industrial Revolution.
The decentralized, unchangeable ledger and improved encryption enable the secure, cost-effective transfer of assets without intermediaries.
It is not an internet platform company since it allows everyone to own a node.
Blockchain extends beyond cryptocurrencies.
The new decentralized worldwide computer environment can transform business, government, and social interactions.
The World Economic Forum’s “Blockchain Technology in Education: The Educational Function of Blockchain is analyzed in “How Blockchain May Revolutionize the Industry” (2023).
The Basics of Blockchain Technology
Blockchain technology is a decentralized digital ledger that captures transactions across many computers, which makes the recorded transactions permanently immutable.
As a principle of security and transparency, blockchain may become a perfect option in many spheres of the education sector, starting from storing academic records up to the verification of licenses.
The use of blockchain may change human interactions.
Decentralized electronic ledgers securely and immutably record valued transactions of money, goods, property, labor, and even voting.
This architecture supports peer-to-peer payments, record management, object tracking, and value transfers in smart contracts.
Blockchain is exciting because it has the potential to completely reform businesses, the government, and society.
Although it is largely exciting, the blockchain also faces a lot of consumer trust and acceptance, technological issues like interoperability and scalability, security threats, legal and regulatory challenges, and energy consumption.
Smart Contracts for Improved Academic Management
Smart contracts, which are self-executing contracts with the terms of the agreement directly coded into lines of code, have the potential to simplify and automate educational administration.
Smart contracts would solve everything from managing course content distribution to tracking student progress, making the administrative burden less and the courses more organized.
The MDPI study shows that smart contracts are one of the biggest advances in blockchain. Smart contracts were initially introduced in the 1990s as a digital transaction system to perform contracts.
Smart contracts are code robots that replicate real-world contract conditions on the web.
Contracts are legally binding commitments between two or more parties, obligating each party to perform. The agreement must be legally binding, normally through a central legal entity.
But smart contracts substitute trusted third parties and intermediaries.
They make use of code execution, which allows network nodes to distribute automatically and verify on a decentralized blockchain.
They also facilitate transactions between untrusted parties with no direct interaction, third parties, or middlemen commissions.
Blockchain, as a matter of fact, commonly hosts and protects smart contracts, so these contracts minimize transaction risk, and administrative and service costs, and facilitate business processes.
Expectations are that smart contracts will make transaction mechanisms in many organizations to be better.
Revolutionizing Student Record-keeping
The growing rate of false degrees and the difficulty in transferring academic records underline the need for a more reliable and easier system.
Blockchain technology overcomes these difficulties by producing permanent and transparent records of academic accomplishments that can be easily shared and verified, thus protecting the sanctity of educational qualifications.
A good example of this trend is the Digital Certificates Project of MIT Media Lab, which utilizes blockchain for secure credentialing (MIT Media Lab, 2021).
Cryptocurrency Incentives for Education
Blockchain presents a new method of motivating students via cryptocurrency rewards.
This, in fact, not only makes academic and extracurricular achievements more real but also integrates modern technology into the educational experience itself by employing gamification strategies, resulting in a more interactive and engaging learning process.
The case study on the University of Nicosia using Bitcoin to pay tribute to students and accept tuition payments will give practical examples of cryptocurrency utilization in education (Journal of Financial Education, Volume 45, 2019).
Digital Badges and Credentials: A New Era
In the digital era, blockchain enables the creation of secure digital badges and certificates that are easily verifiable and shareable on digital platforms.
This increases the trustworthiness of online learning and provides more opportunities for career development and acknowledgment.
According to Merija Jirgensons and J‚nis Kapenieks, Riga Technical University, Latvia, blockchain technology provides permanent, transparent, and sustainable evaluation and management tools for user credentials and grants direct access to users.
With the help of encrypted credentials, lifetime learning paths and education can be tailored to the ideals and needs of users.
They capture general and personal silos, and the silos are economy-independent and on the current situation. Bagging is the oldest online credentialing reaction. (Source: Journal of Teacher Education for Sustainability, Education Research Information Center)
Streamlining Certification and Authenticity
Blockchain technology makes the process of document verification easier with the academic transfers and authenticity of the credentials.
This also saved time and added authenticity to the educational records, thereby creating a base of trust for academic and professional activities.
The European Commission’s Joint Research Centre report “Blockchain in Education” is focused on document verification and the elimination of fraudulent credentials. (European Commission, 2022) (Courtesy: JRC SCIENCE FOR POLICY REPORT – On the Futures of Technology in Education: Emerging Trends and Policy Implications)
Blockchain and Its Role in Lowering Education Costs
Blockchain technology, through the streamlining of administrative processes and the secure sharing of records, could reduce the costs of education management in a big way, thereby making education more accessible and efficient.
Many private start-ups as well as institutions use blockchain for learning certification.
This is done by storing data in Ethereum with high security and an open-source application with smart contract-verified issuer identification. European institutions use their approach, which has saved issuers 90% of the costs.
Some News Updates….
The Prime Minister awarded IIT graduates blockchain-based degrees for the first time on December 28.
The potential of blockchain technology to transform other crucial sectors may be more intriguing.
This technology may change education.
Conclusion
The continuous development of blockchain technology and its integration with education systems worldwide, it will open a bright future for a more inclusive, efficient, and safe educational world.
Blockchain transforms approaches to academic record management and presents creative learning incentives while leading the way in the educational revolution, which provides an insight into the future of new technological and educational possibilities.
