Perspectives of digital identity – the case of online education during the COVID-19 pandemic

Abstract

Each individual is unique, and the digital identity associated with a person should model and guarantee this uniqueness and the ability to reliably recognize him/her. In this paper, we review the challenges posed by the sudden transfer of a significant part of the social activity in the online realm, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, with unforeseen consequences on the educational process in particular. If there was a fairly large spectrum of economic activities that were taking place or were facilitated via a digital medium prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, the education system worldwide proved to not have been prepared to provide an effective and consistent response to the going online approach, which was merely a choice, but rather the only embraceable option. In the context of online education, this paper can design a comprehensive and integrated framework for assisting the process of students’ digital identity validation, particularly when attending an examination or any other form of academic evaluation conducted remotely. We also consider the integration of digital identity validation with platforms that offer educational content, knowledge evaluation tests, and other elements to which access must be ensured only for authorized users, based on a strict identity identification process to eliminate those who want to defraud or disrupt the functionality of the system.