Decentralized Infrastructure of Micro-Credentials and Blockchain Technology

Abstract

Higher education is being reshaped by technology and this ongoing change is seen in many layers of the educational environment. Yet the management of academic credentials hasn’t been fully affected by the technology that is reshaping the learning preferences of the learners. For the last ten years, learners have started to fulfill their needs for learning via online sources which are supported by either universities or private companies. Upon completing an online certificate program, learners ask for valid certificates that are issued by reliable organizations. At this point, the idea of Micro-credentials (MCs) has emerged as MCs offer bite-sized and flexible online courses to learners according to their needs. Via some online learning platforms, learners have started to rethink their career paths to meet the requirements of the day. These credentialing ecosystems have grown in numbers over time and learners have felt the need for trust for the issuer bodies and the exchange of the given credits. To fulfill this need, Blockchain technologies can be used to decentralize the credentialing system. Blockchain technologies, if well-planned and used strategically, can provide some benefits for the credibility and authenticity of the MCs. These benefits include “timestamping” to ensure validity and “being permanent” to make transactions immutable. At this point, Decentralized Autonomous Organizations (DAO) could be a relatively new blockchain acronym that aims to decentralize the management of organizations with the help of smart contract which is the backbone technology of the DAOs. In this paper, the background knowledge on MC’s and the possible benefits, and drawbacks of using Blockchain technologies in the decentralization of MCs are discussed. At the end of this study, some suggestions are given for future research.