The document discusses potential applications of blockchain technology in education. It describes how blockchain could enable students to own and control their own educational records and credentials. This could allow for disintermediation, reducing costs and opening up new models of learning. The Open University is exploring several proof-of-concept applications including issuing badges on blockchain, peer reputation systems, and student-owned learning analytics. Blockchain may help increase transparency, collaboration and lower barriers to the education market.

1. Blockchains and New
Educational Models
Prof. John Domingue (@johndmk)
Director, Knowledge Media Institute &
Patrina Law, Head of Free Learning
The Open University, UKkmi.open.ac.uk
blockchain.open.ac.uk

2. Open University
Context

3. The Open University
• Established in 1969
• The UK’s largest university
• No qualification barrier to entry
• Over 170,000 students registered
last year
– 22,000 have a disability
• More than 2 million students have studied its courses since
its foundation.
• 117 postgraduate and 325 undergraduate
courses
• Over 21,000 academic awards annually
• 5,000 associate lectures
• Role model for many other institutions worldwide
© Simon Buckingham Shum
3

4. 1970s Home Experiment Kits
Home Chemistry Kit Home Geology Kit

6. Sample

7. E117 Introduction to Sport and
Fitness

8. Major Blockchain
and Education
Initiatives

9. Characteristics of Blockchain
DApps
• Shared database
• Multiple writers
• Absence of trust
• Disintermediation
• Transaction interaction
• Set rules
• Validators
• Asset backing
http://www.multichain.com/blog/2015/11/avoiding-pointless-blockchain-project/

10. MSc Certificates on
Blockchain
http://digitalcurrency.unic.ac.cy/certificates
10

12. Learning Machine

13. For example, after taking an examination
to demonstrate his or her academic
proficiency level, an individual could direct
the testing organization to share the test
results with one or more third-party
evaluating organizations. With this diversification and the changes it
brings about, different evaluating
organizations may come to utilize
individuals' test results in different ways,
each in accordance with its own evaluation
methods.
http://www.sony.net/SonyInfo/News/Press/201602/16-0222E/index.html

14. Blockchain and
Education at the
OU

16. Student Controlled
Education

23. openbadges.org

24. OpenLearn Badges on the
blockchain

25. Smart Contract Badge
Services
• Job Hunting
• Promotion
• Mandatory CPD training
• Networking
• Reconfiguration
• Course recommendations

26. Demos of movies available at: http://blockchain.open.ac.uk/
Peer Reputation and Badging

27. Reputation Contract
Functions:
Storage:
sendReputation
getPersonBalance()
getReputationAttribute
attribs[address = > Attrib]
Attrib { uint balanceOf;
mapping(string => uint);
string[] attribStrings
}
Reputation
Attribute
token
Balances
Reputation Smart Contract
Tokens left
to assign
My Reputation
Peer Reputation Page
Kevin’s Reputation View
Communication: 14
Collaboration: 06
Organisation: 12
Ethics: 05
Problem Solving: 10
Engagement: 04
your Ethereum address
password to private key
Signing this transaction will transfer stated
Reputation Tokens + ETH gas payment from
your account. Estimated gas cost is 0.02 ETH.
Maximum gas cost is set to 0.05 ETH
Transfer
Reputation Tokens Left: 57
number of tokens to transfer
Assign Reputation
My Reputation
Peer Reputation Page
Michelle’s Reputation View
Communication: 06
Collaboration: 02
Organisation: 10
Ethics: 12
Problem Solving: 08
Engagement: 16
your Ethereum address
password to private key
Signing this transaction will transfer stated
Reputation Tokens + ETH gas payment from
your account. Estimated gas cost is 0.02 ETH.
Maximum gas cost is set to 0.05 ETH
Transfer
Reputation Tokens Left: 68
number of tokens to transfer
Assign Reputation
Signed
TX
Reputation
Attribute
token
Balances
Tokens left
to assign
Michelle transfers 4 Reputation tokens for ‘Organisation’ to Kevin

28. Michelle transfers 4 Reputation tokens for ‘Organisation’ to Kevin

29. Michelle transfers 4 Reputation tokens for ‘Organisation’ to Kevin

30. Block no: 45566778
Michelle transfers 4 Reputation tokens for ‘Organisation’ to Kevin

31. Michelle transfers 4 Reputation tokens for ‘Organisation’ to Kevin

32. Michelle transfers 4 Reputation tokens for ‘Organisation’ to Kevin

33. Michelle transfers 4 Reputation tokens for ‘Organisation’ to Kevin

34. Michelle transfers 4 Reputation tokens for ‘Organisation’ to Kevin

35. Michelle transfers 4 Reputation tokens for ‘Organisation’ to Kevin

36. Michelle transfers 4 Reputation tokens for ‘Organisation’ to Kevin

38. Student ePortfolio Explorer

39. Student ePortfolio Explorer

40. Rise of the Uber University

41. Uber-style Education (1/2)

42. Uber-style Education (2/2)

43. Collaborations
Copyright http://dilbert.com/

44. Startups in the CV/Accreditation
Space

45. Global Higher and Further
Education Blockchain

46. Future/Other Work
and Summary
Copyright http://dilbert.com/

47. Linking to Linked Open Data

48. Semantic Indexing of
Blockchains
• Related data spread across blocks
• No high-level semantics for contracts
• Need
– An index onto blockchain
– To connect blockchain data to Linked Data
– To allow richer contract semantics
• Linked Data index for blockchain

49. BLONDiE
Contract
Ethereum
Transaction
Bitcoin
Transaction
Output
Bitcoin
Transaction
Input
Bitcoin
Transaction
hasBitcoin
Transaction
Output
hasBitcoin
Transaction
Input
Message Call
Ethereum
Transaction
Contract
Creation
Ethereum
Transaction
Ethereum
Transaction
has
Ethereum
Transaction
has
Ethereum
Payload
hasOmmer Ethereum
Ommer
has
Ethereum
Blockheader
hasPayload
Ethereum
Blockheader
Normal
Ethereum
Transaction
has
Bitcoin
Blockheader
has
Bitcoin
Payload
hasTransaction
has
Blockheader
Bitcoin
Blockheader
https://github.com/hedugaro/Blondie

51. Learning Analytics: OU Analyse
(1/3)

52. Learning Analytics: OU Analyse
(2/3)

53. Learning Analytics: OU Analyse
(3/3)

54. Open Anonymised Learning
Analytics Dataset

55. Learning Analytics on the
Blockchain
• Learner-controlled learning analytics data
– Provenance assured by blockchain
– Access permitted/denied by
audience/purpose
• Zero-knowledge proofs over data
– Ask questions without accessing data
– Provably correct answers

56. Scientific Knowledge on DLsBlockchain April 2017
Figure 1: Research Publications in Blockchain

57. Summary: Blockchain Benefits
• Inbuilt identity management
• Data controlled/owned by students rather than
any single institution
• Increases transparency
• Reduces risk of fraud
• Enables collaboration/interoperability
• Permits disintermediation
– Badge issuing based on badge collection
• Lowering of process costs
– Lowers entry barriers to education market
– ‘university of one’

58. Acknowledgements
• KMi@OU Implementation Team
– Michelle Bachler
– Kevin Quick
– Allan Third
– Chris Valentine
– Umar Mir

59. blockchain.open.ac.uk