Author: Alexander Mikroyannidis
Institution: The Open University
Country: United Kingdom
Topic: Technologies for Open Education
Sector: Lifelong Learning
UNESCO Area of Focus: Building capacity
Session Format: Workshop
Abstract
The emergence of the Blockchain promises to revolutionise not only the financial world, but also open education in various ways. Blockchain technology offers a decentralised peer-to-peer infrastructure, where privacy, secure archiving, consensual ownership, transparency, accountability, identity management and trust are built-in, both at the software and infrastructure levels. This technology offers opportunities to thoroughly rethink how we find educational content and tutoring services online, how we register and pay for them, as well as how we get accredited for what we have learned and how this accreditation affects our career trajectory.The QualiChain research and innovation project (https://qualichain-project.eu) focuses on the assessment of the technical, political, socio-economic, legal and cultural impact of decentralised solutions on education. QualiChain investigates the creation, piloting and evaluation of decentralised solutions for storing, sharing and verifying education and employment qualifications and explores the potential of Blockchain technology for disrupting the domain of open education, as well as its interfaces with private education, the job market, public sector administrative procedures and the wider socio-economic developments.
This hands-on workshop will explore the different aspects of open education and lifelong learning that are affected by decentralisation. More specifically, we will discuss the ways that ePortfolios, accreditation, tutoring, as well as other aspects of teaching and learning can evolve within a decentralised ecosystem based on the Blockchain. Participants will also have the opportunity to try out and evaluate the online tools offered by the QualiChain project for the Blockchain-based award and verification of education and employment qualifications.
Keywords
blockchain, decentralisation, accreditation, open education, lifelong learning
