Request for Comments: Proposal of a Blockchain for the Automatic Management and Acceptance of Student Achievements

TL;DR

This paper proposes a blockchain-based system to manage and recognize student achievements globally, aiming to address challenges in international credit transfer, achievement verification, and integration of online certificates.

Contribution

It introduces a novel blockchain framework for worldwide management of student achievements, fostering discussion on data security, fraud prevention, and academic integrity.

Findings

Conceptual proposal for blockchain-based achievement management

Discussion of open research questions and challenges

Encourages global community discussion

Abstract

Staying abroad during their studies is increasingly popular for students. However, there are various challenges for both students and universities. One important question for students is whether or not achievements performed at different universities can be taken into account for either enrolling at a foreign university or for completing the studies at their home university. In addition to university achievements, an increasing proportion of the 195 million students worldwide increasingly receive certificates from MOOCs or other social media services. The integration of such services into university teaching is still in the initial stages and presents some challenges. In this paper we describe the idea to manage all these study achievements worldwide in a blockchain, which might solve the national and international challenges regarding the recognition of student achievements. The aim of this paper is to encourage discussion in the global community instead of presenting a finished concept. Some of the open research questions are: How to ensure student data protection, how to deal with fraud and how to deal with the possibility that students can analytically calculate the easiest way through their studies?