#PaiRED: Blockchain, Education & Pathways to Employment
Education and training can benefit tremendously from the characteristic of blockchain known as sharing. It can be used to allow education to reach people beyond institutions and organizations and in countries that currently lack access. It can certainly ease the process of validating credentials and certificates and help ensure transparency and quality in education. Performance and reliability go hand in hand with transparency and confidentiality. It’s not that the application of blockchain to education will be without issues. But the benefits to long term improvement can outweigh the challenges. Areas like individual privacy, profiling, reframing skills, performance, inclusion, distribution and regulation will have to be explored thoroughly.
Blockchains have a natural place in tracking, managing and authenticating activities in online platforms especially in MOOCs (Massive Online Open Courses). MOOCs have a notoriously small completion rate and blockchain might be used as a motivational tool. Most importantly, blockchain has the potential to increase trust in learning. There are still many challenges to overcome but the benefits can be huge for enriching the experience of learners on all levels.
Clear learning pathways can be another benefit from blockchain. Blockchains can be developed on a community level to match schools and employers to provide an education to employment pipelines. If everyone joins in and uses the same blockchain, the possibilities are exponential. The ability to transfer credits easily between community colleges and four-year institutions can be immediate.
The same is true with employment. Employers can see detailed information including degrees and academic records such as courses taken, topics covered and outcomes. This allows an employer to evaluate learning with a more contextual view. Blockchain has many possibilities if people can come together and commit to a shared program and common framework. It creates trust and requires standardization. It can reduce the administrative burden for HR and academic institutions.
It can also help Higher Education in the dissemination and authentication of research and intellectual property. It can provide a platform between institutions, researchers and public and private organizations. This can help with ensuring academic integrity and identifying where ideas really begin.
The biggest benefits for adopting blockchain are for the learners. Learners can have the ability to have learning recognized wherever it occurs… in a classroom, on the job, self-directed or in service to others. Blockchain has the potential to create a unified ecosystem(s), bringing together learning done in one’s free time with more formal learning environments.
One of the big challenges for blockchain finding its way into the world of education is the upfront costs. The cost of Internet access became apparent with the 2019 COVID outbreak. There are large social and economic disparities of access to the Internet.
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