The future of university education: Examination, transcript, and certificate system using blockchain

Abstract

Blockchain is slowly but surely changing the world. Cryptocurrencies are having a profound effect on the economic landscape. With the advent of COVID‐19, the education sector, just like other sectors, need a complete reinvention or redesign to continue producing graduates that would be able to effectively contribute to an ever‐changing world. Very often, the administrative burden of managing the award of academic qualifications is ignored. With a globalised world and given the actual context of COVID‐19, education is no longer seen as being carried out within the four walls of the classroom. The future of University education lies within the ability to pool resources from different places and to encourage cross‐university collaboration. This can also be seen as the ability to assemble the different building blocks so that the learners are able to acquire the necessary skills and knowledge. This study focuses on the design and implementation of an examination, transcript and certificate system using blockchain. It is meant to provide a completely transparent and effective examination and awards system that can be used to replace the traditional one in place. What has also proposed in this study is a novel light blockchain system composed of a number of modules, which have been built from scratch. With its decentralised approach, the proposed system proved to be very much helpful. Other features, such as security, immutability, availability, and anonymity, of the system are also discussed and yielded highly encouraging results.

An Extensive Blockchain Based Applications Survey: Tools, Frameworks, Opportunities, Challenges and Solutions

“…Menon et al [71] presented the paper by explaining the idea of BTs.They expounded on the importance of marketing applications of the technology and the no need for intermediaries in BC that helped in developing trust and reduced cost.They also illustrated with the details of marketing facility that could incorporate the application and concepts in the market. Deenmahomed et al [72] designed and implemented an examination, certificate, and transcript system using BC. It provided an effective examination and award system that can be used to replace the traditional system.…”

Secure Online Examination with Biometric Authentication and Blockchain-Based Framework

“…Rahman et al [25] provided a new proposal of devising a security and privacy-preserving design mechanism of data transactions in educational microservices leveraging the blockchain technology, which has high survey acceptance in terms of confidentiality, integrity, and availability. Deenmahomed et al [26] focused on the design and implementation of an examination, transcript, and certificate system using blockchain, where credits transaction is created when a student completes a course, and a mobile wallet is provided to allow students to have a copy of their certificates. With the help of blockchain, previous studies [10,11,25,26] provided security mechanisms, such as tamper proof.…”

“…Deenmahomed et al [26] focused on the design and implementation of an examination, transcript, and certificate system using blockchain, where credits transaction is created when a student completes a course, and a mobile wallet is provided to allow students to have a copy of their certificates. With the help of blockchain, previous studies [10,11,25,26] provided security mechanisms, such as tamper proof.…”

“…Previous studies [22,23] cannot avoid single-point failures. Previous literature [10,11,25,26] cannot provide finegrained access control. We focus on authentication, confidentiality, and tamper proof in designing an online examination scheme.…”

Towards a Trusted and Unified Consortium-Blockchain-Based Data Sharing Infrastructure for Open Learning—TolFob Architecture and Implementation

“…In these scenarios, students' important data such as credentials (transcripts, certificates, e.g., diploma, degree, training, internship, etc. ), learning process behavior records, and study achievements records need to be carefully produced, issued, preserved, and shared among different stakeholders [14,15]. Moreover, the sharing process needs to be easy, fast, and available on-demand.…”