Workshop presentation at JTEL Summer School 2019 in Bari, Italy.

1. How the Blockchain
can shape the future
of education
Dr. Alexander Mikroyannidis
The Open University, UK

2. Agenda
• Introduction
• Group activity
• Discussion
• Closing

3. Motivation
The centralised education model is no longer sustainable:
– Learning happens increasingly outside the brick-and-mortar
lecture halls of schools, colleges, and universities on online
platforms, within communities of like-minded individuals, or by
contributing to projects and initiatives in the real-world.
– Learning is far more international than it used to be: key
education players open campuses abroad, while students travel
to different countries to improve their employability prospects.
– In the networked, digitally empowered world of the 21st century,
education providers often do not have remit or the means and
capacity to cover the range of activities learners engage with,
which attest their achievements, knowledge, and skills.

4. Vision
We envision an education model in which the
awarding and validation of qualifications no longer
occur exclusively under the management of an
education institution or an employer.
Individual students, teachers, and peers take more
ownership of the learning experience and its
outcomes without compromising on safety, security,
and accessibility.

6. Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o0FBQMQ0l8U
What is a blockchain?

7. Scenario #1: Educational
reputation
• Transactions of educational reputation rather than money.
• An amount of reputation is assigned to institutions and
individuals, based on their status. This could be related to
their standing in international league tables or to significant
achievements.
• They can then award small amounts of this reputational
currency to students who graduate, or colleagues whose
work they value.
• The record is public, so anyone can see how a person
gained educational reputation, and the rules for adding new
value are agreed by consensus.

8. Movies available at: http://blockchain.open.ac.uk
Prototype demo

9. Scenario #2: Personalised
recommendations
• Lifelong learners earn Smart Badges
stored on the Blockchain, thus
ensuring the validity of the awarded
accreditation and eliminating the risk
of fabricated qualifications.
• Smart Badges include data about the
key skills that learners have
acquired.
• Learners receive personalised
recommendations about job offers
that match their skills. They also
receive recommendations about what
to study next.
Lifelong Learner Educational Institution
Smart Badge
Course recommendation
Job recommendation
Studies
Receives
Receives
Receives
Offers
Awards
Personal ePortfolio
Online course
Mikroyannidis, A., Domingue, J., Bachler, M. and Quick, K.
(2018) Smart Blockchain Badges for Data Science Education,
IEEE Frontiers in Education Conference (FIE), San Jose,
California, USA, IEEE Education Society Publications.

10. Prototype demo
Movies available at: http://blockchain.open.ac.uk

11. Questions?

12. Group activity
Build your learning scenario:
http://bit.ly/Blockchain-JTELSS19

13. Next steps
• We are currently implementing the
core components of this ecosystem,
using the Ethereum blockchain
platform.
• We are also working on learning
scenarios and applications on real-life
educational platforms, for example by
developing a Moodle plugin for
blockchain badges.

14. QualiChain
• New H2020 project (started
January 2019)
• Decentralised Verification
and Management of
Qualifications for:
– Learner Empowerment
– Education Reengineering
– Public Sector
Transformation

15. blockchain.open.ac.uk
qualichain-project.eu
Thank you for your participation!