In an admissions season, students go through a lot of avoidable stress in finding the right place to continue studies for the next few years and are constantly challenged in that pursuit, what with marks at one end, search for an appropriate fit somewhere in the middle and affordability at the other end. Some succeed in this effort, find their dream college and then, there are several others, who would have to go through the motions of the process and eventually settle for whatever is available. Still many others would have to leave the dream altogether, for a better moment, for want of affordability or for want of authentic information and not settling for what is dished out on various websites.
A few days into college, many find the lectures not interesting enough, or that their interests lie elsewhere or even feel that no value addition is possible in the environment that they have found themselves in. However, many others would go through the rigmarole, howsoever inane that may be, eventually passing out of the system with a Diploma or a Degree, only to be greeted in a new world, by a realisation not always pleasing and almost resigned to fit the available space, whatever that may be. An exit route, though is available is strewn with contradictions like the colleges, not willing to return the certificates deposited with them or even insisting on receipt of fees for all the years of study.
The students have even to contend lecturers teaching in the local language when all along the understanding given would be to teach and learn in English. Several promises like a decent canteen or provision of some sports facilities or even basic amenities are flouted. Students then perforce depend on self-study or further expend money on coaching institutes or depend on some kind of contrived community learning.
Lack of adequate Laboratory facilities, Lack of quality faculty members who themselves are exposed to quality research and a host of mushrooming sites, that boast of academic projects, all have contributed to a steady decline in quality. Students being what they are, in a very demanding environment, would explore an easy way out and buy academic projects in an open market that is exploited by unscrupulous operators, some of them who could be faculty in lesser known colleges. People make fake profiles, copy projects from other resumes and lot of institutions issue fake certificates. Employers do not want to trust them.
The entire exercise of academics and further, sets them through several examinations and pushes them to perform, underperform, or outperform their peers. Several documents are collected in the process that are accessed throughout ones professional career. Education is curiously nationalistic. 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. However, trust is the key.
It is unfortunate that the education system rather than influencing the outcomes of knowledge makes a student acquire certificates, acquire credits, grade point averages etc. In an ever-changing world, a world that is being disrupted for end goals which are not always clear, can a student even sue an institution or a university if the promises are not kept or if the promised deliveries do not accrue? Going to a court when educational institutions break their promises is impossible. Students can’t even afford their tuition fee. How can they afford to pay a lawyer? Blockchain won’t magically solve these problems. But it is an indispensable tool and by the way, it’s already here, not only in Bitcoin, but in many other services and commodities like badges, credits, and qualifications. Can Blockchain help solve these problems?
Technically, Blockchain is a distributed database, spread across many computers. This has the potential to transform governance, the economy, businesses and the functioning of institutions and organisations. Every ‘block’ is transparent but tamper-proof. A ‘block’ has a timestamp for recording transactions and offers indelible proof of all of them. Rather than relying on third parties, it’s a frictionless method for transacting with others. In normal speak, you cut out the middleman. The database is distributed, public, synchronised and encrypted. All transactions are logged with a time, date and other details, then verified by some very smart analytics. What this promises is a more efficient, secure and transparent way of handling transactions. This could save a huge amount of administration, bureaucracy, effort and time. The Internet of things will surely add another dimension to the potential of Blockchain.
Assume if the majority of the students agree that lectures were not delivered, no student will be charged. Students now hold a leverage for the university to act truthfully. Such and other services available on any standard educational e governance platform can be a part of the Blockchain and can be tracked for deliverance. Broken promises can be tracked in the public domain and authorities responsible also be made to pay for it. A Blockchain can automatically transfer a penalty amount to a student’s account on every promise that broken. Are we ready for a game changer? It can be implemented within individual educational institutions, groups of educational institutions, both national and international educational bodies and regulatory authorities. In fact anyone wanting to securely store badges, credits, and qualifications and make educational data that matters available to others can be a part of the technology. Cross verification between various bodies is a consequence. This will improve reputation, trust in certification, and proof of learning. A system-created decentralised clearing number (DCN), generated can allow authentication by even employers and institutions where students seek further education.
Several Institutions are toying with the idea of a certain number of credits coming through MOOC like courses. Interestingly, there’s a MOOC on Bitcoin and blockchain by Princeton University on Coursera. However, very little or no interact is possible with the professor directly and Coursera profiles are not queryable. Despite the carping, people have been taking MOOCs. They are genuinely changing the way education is delivered and acting as a real catalyst for change, forcing universities into a rethink.
The certification issue, though, remains a little vague. Each separate MOOC provider issues certificates. With some imagination, the real demand for MOOCs could be boosted by secure certification in the form of agreement among the major MOOC providers. It could even open up MOOC certification for actual degrees. MOOCs are about decentralisation and widening access, so there’s every reason to suppose that organisers will want to decentralise and increase access to their certification. Even trusted Continued Professional Development (CPD) data from conference attendance, courses, and other forms of learning can be tracked and made available to prospective employers.
Blockchain could be used for a myriad of learning experiences from various sources. It requires a small transaction model, some API’s which can be used to gather evidence from micro-learning experiences. It is open source and stores data in Learning Record Stores and is a natural route to the use of blockchain. It is a technology that clearly has applications in the world of learning at the individual, institutional, group, national and international levels. It is relevant in all sorts of contexts: schools, colleges, universities, MOOCs, CPD, corporates, apprenticeships, and knowledge bases.
With almost everything disrupted by the day, with universities forced to innovate and be relevant in an ever-changing education space, and also be aspirational enough, for its subscribers, is it not time the university behemoths that we have, also change and keep pace with expectations of a digital student and the demands of today’s employers?