Blockchain technology was first intended for secure cryptocurrency transactions. Successfully rooted in this field of application, it was introduced into other industries. Thus, the educational sector has now started benefiting from a decentralized network.
With modern e-learning tendencies, a significant data flow is carried out through the web. Students, teachers, and third-party suppliers make an informational exchange during the educational and training processes. Blockchain LMS can guarantee secure user interaction, providing a data recording system resistant to hacks, outside control, or modification.
Training materials now can be available from any device, and their reliability doesn’t raise doubts. In addition, unique tools check the authors’ qualifications to guarantee appropriate skills availability for specialized content writing.
This article will explain how Blockchain technology can be used to enhance teaching and learning processes and their outcomes. We’ll find innovation's advantages and highlight obstacles that decrease recipients’ interest.
What are the benefits of Blockchain in e-learning?
The educational industry is affected by the new technology most of all. Blockchain is overcoming a lot of challenges associated with an increasing number of online content, its recording, and maintenance. Meet the main benefits of Blockchain in education, which establish e-learning fairness and become an understandable tool for everyone.
Excellent data integrity
The complete information within the Blockchain educational system is managed by its members, not the central authority. All data streams are reliable and verified, so users can ensure fraudsters do not disseminate their materials. Secure storage in the educational environment is a significant factor for students' success.
Effectiveness
Blockchain in online education supports easy and productive learning. Tutors can monitor the progress of separate persons, give immediate feedback, and assess students’ knowledge. Thus, studying becomes more effective than the traditional classroom style, especially for persons who can’t attend offline lessons. Moreover, increasing user satisfaction in course performance, maintenance, and data safety makes learners motivated to upgrade skills, and teachers can compound educational materials more effectively.
Blockchain in e-learning excludes questionable material entry into the network, providing degrees and other credentials verification for course writers. The system checks users' certificates' reliability to weed out falsifications. Learners can ensure that, for example, a psychology course is drawn up by a specialist with an appropriate degree in this field. Thus, Blockchain technology in education lowers the risk of being misled with not up-to-date information that could negatively impact skills.
Affordable pricing policy
Cost is one of the main issues when it comes to learning affordability. People who don’t have sufficient financial means to get better academic knowledge find their salvation in the educational Blockchain projects. Thus, online studying saves students money on rental and transport expenses compared to full-time study at a university or college.
Worldwide access
Not all universities have access to innovative research and high-quality training materials. And this is one of the biggest problems of modern learning systems. The use of Blockchain in education solves this issue by opening gates to the best global practices, instructions, and courses developed by talented people worldwide. Regardless of location and degree, anyone can enter the area of relevant certificated information and the newest research works. Furthermore, Blockchain code, implemented in e-learning, erases boundaries in time, place of residence, qualification, and income for individuals.
Everybody who shares and uses the learning materials dramatically benefits from the applications of Blockchain in education. This powerful technology provides time-saving and cost-effective training methods and makes it more accessible for individuals’ professional growth.
At the same time, we can face several disadvantages of Blockchain in education, which need to be removed for further e-learning sector growth:
Costs. With numerous positive features, technology can be too expensive for implementation. In addition, there is a need for an existing system modification and hardware updating if it’s too old and doesn’t fit the transitioning requirements. The lack of qualified Blockchain staff also leads to additional investments in skilled developers.
Scalability. One of the recommendations for technology in education is to improve the maintenance of massive data amounts. With the increasing number of participants and content, new blocks for information storage appear. As all transactions need to be verified, their speed slows down.
Adoption rate. Since Blockchain is just gaining momentum, a lot of organizations are on their way to adopting such training certificates. However, for many, the fact that the technology is associated with cryptocurrency or money laundering remains a gray area, which has led to distrust and unacceptance. So, such credentialing should be popularized first to give an equal opportunity to all students and employees.
We hope that all the obstacles in ledger applications will soon become rules, not exceptions. And for now, let’s see how to implement Blockchain in education and take the maximum advantage of this symbiosis.
How Blockchain transformed an online school industry?
Innovative technology has already influenced the financial sphere with Bitcoin, Ethereum, and other digital currencies. Now it’s the time for the educational sector. Blockchain in e-learning is taking steps forward to simplify the paper document flow and their further storing with the rising level of relevance and security. Keep following our article to know how exactly technology has improved education and learn whether Blockchain has obstacles for future implementation.
Here are 7 ways showing how innovations help e-learning.
Authentication of academic qualifications and certificates
Earlier, we figured out that educational systems with Blockchain guarantee the reliability of learning materials within their network. It becomes possible with a toolset called Blockcerts, the MIT Media Lab, and the Learning Machine product. Its infrastructure allows validating certificates, diplomas, and degrees of individuals who provide online training or looking for a job. Thus forgers with false documents are excluded from courses’ publications or employment. The most popular projects among Blockchain-based certification tools are Stampery and Gradbase. They are used as a standard, allowing to organize the verification process.
An ability to accept cryptocurrency payments
Blockchain in education provided a possibility to pay for courses with cryptocurrency. This method is quite popular among the young generation. Moreover, with a unique tokenized system approach, students can now earn cryptocurrency online while working for teachers or e-learning partners and get virtual training.
With digital money implementation, payments within a learning system can be made without third-party institutions (like banks or credit card companies). Additionally, the technology speeds up and safeguards all financial operations and allows saving on intermediaries’ fees.
Tracking student progress and credentials
Blockchain-based education creates a digital environment for storing personal credentials and overall learning experience during the whole person’s life. All the academic records, diplomas, and qualification certificates can be collected and safely shared within the web network. It is like an online portfolio that can be accessed from anywhere for various educational and working goals (like employment).
With the help of authentication tools, students’ records and documents will be checked and approved for reliability. Also, this way, entrepreneurs will validate the interviewed person’s skills and ensure professionalism.
Special experience in health care education
A Blockchain technology definition lies in creating a global system for data recording with the modification and forgery prohibition, which allows using it for healthcare e-learning. As a result, online training becomes more efficient than traditional lectures. Medical workers can choose the most suitable way of receiving information: audio files, videos, text instructions, images, or simulations. Moreover, learners can pause and replay training instructions until the complete material assimilation. This approach enhances studying and saves time and costs for raising healthcare employees' qualifications.
With Blockchain security, learners can be sure they use the most relevant and verified research data, which can not be changed or deleted by third-party participants. Blockchain e-learning institutions in healthcare allow quick access to updated information to provide the best treatment currently available for their clients. The patients get a better service when the practitioners use up-to-date learning materials on the symptoms, prognosis, and possible medications. And the staff upgrading doesn’t seem to be a burden. With different gamification approaches and interactive and challenging features, a training process becomes engaging and attractive.
Blockchain is the future of community content repositories
The digital educational network is a perfect environment for assisting principals’ research works, dissertations, and other intellectual property creation. The future of Blockchain in education is predetermined by its ability to share, manage and validate digital materials. With secure learning channels, high-degree tutors could be encouraged to distribute valuable materials by monetary compensation for their work usage.
Also, Blockchain technology will be applied to modifying community content repositories, in other words, digital libraries, for controlling online content and providing copyright protection.
According to the Joint Research Centre (JRC) of the European Commission, the primary efforts to further Blockchain development should be directed on two factors:
Recipient's ownership. Students should manage their credentials alone, not allowing institutions to participate in this process.
Providers’ participation. Only MIT Media Lab and Learning Machine developers should validate, share and transfer Blockchain data. Every educational institution can use its standards for credentials verification.
A decentralized approach to learning & teaching
The hallmark of Blockchain technology lies in decentralized management. Here, the e-learning platforms are operated not by a single authority but by a consensus. People can share their knowledge or experience through paid courses and instructions in this digital space. Moreover, learning materials can be presented in different forms, from simple text manuals to gamification.
The e-learning platform's content can be shared peer-to-peer with ensured data protection and the impossibility of changing the original information. Furthermore, instructors can upload content from different knowledge categories and confirm their material's integrity with a fair, appropriate diploma or a certificate.
Security of data and payments
As we emphasized earlier, e-learning Blockchain technology provides direct financial transactions if the payments are made with cryptocurrency. That means users' money and personal information don’t hit the mediators' hands, and operations are made quickly, cheaper (with minimum fees), and safer.
As for the individual's data, it is stored in virtual batches named blocks. The latter are connected in a parallel line. Once written, the content can’t be changed or edited. However, it is possible to modify it in a particular way, which allows you to save and show all the document versions.
If somebody wants to see the entire list of modifications, they will face the report of changed fragments and the time of new versions creation. So the original data in Blockchain can’t be destroyed over time, which makes the system transparent to all its participants.
Blockchain technology in the educational system can significantly benefit all its participants. While providing a secure space for unlimited content storage and management, it ensures the accessibility of valuable materials to any student worldwide. In addition, higher educated principals receive an opportunity to share knowledge and earn compensation for their research re-usage.
An e-learning Blockchain-based environment has no central authority, so materials can be shared peer-to-peer with transparent updating. Furthermore, educational content creators are constantly verified on their qualification level. That’s why any fraud with the individual’s degree is excluded. Concerning the future of Blockchain in e-learning, efforts should be made to ensure the author’s rights and data validation and remove such challenges as lack of system scalability, implementation expenses, and overall adoption.
Every self-respecting business owner, at some point, thinks of improving employees' knowledge, mastery, and confidence. They may already succeed in creating an eLearning platform for corporate training. However, it still needs constant updating to keep the staff up with time and deliver the most relevant data. While developing online lessons is a lengthy process requiring experience and tech power, distributing tasks can become the only solution for companies searching for quick and efficient results.
Today’s busy and tech-savvy online customers are interested in mobile-friendly educational courses suitable for smartphones, tablets, and other gadgets. User-centric and accessible, gamified and bite-sized, mLearning can happen anytime, anywhere. You should learn how to implement it in the organization to make it a part of your corporate culture.
If you practice edtech in your organization, then you might already understand the crucial role of digital learning platforms in constant employee growth. Corporate training has a direct impact on your company’s productivity.
