The Potential of Blockchain Technology in Education - A Blockchain-Based Study Management System for Higher Education Institutions

Seminar paper from the year 2018 in the subject Computer Science - Internet, New Technologies, Bielefeld University, language: English, abstract: This paper aims to show possibilities of the blockchain technology in the field of education. It seeks to theoretically conceptualize a platform, which could be used by universities, students, and employers to manage ECTS credits and degree certificates. This means a platform, through which the university would issue ECTS credits to students as tokens after successfully passing an exam and consequently a degree certificate after getting the needed number of credits/tokens. Students would be able to show their achievements to their potential employers or to another university through showing their public key. A case study in this paper will be the EduCTX platform, which offers a relatively well thought solution to the above-mentioned problems. This platform will be described in detail and it will also get expanded with some new ideas to make it even more suitable for the stakeholders. The paper starts with a very brief description of blockchain and its characteristics, to continue thereafter with the possible uses of blockchain in the education industry and especially higher education. Case studies will follow and will also be advanced and adopted to the situation. To conclude the paper there will be a combination of the described solutions in one hypothetical case of five universities that offer a joint degree.