Universal Micro-credential Certifications Powered By the Blockchain: An Extension For eAsel
Open Access
- Author:
- Wu, Justin
- Graduate Program:
- Informatics
- Degree:
- Master of Science
- Document Type:
- Master Thesis
- Date of Defense:
- February 21, 2022
- Committee Members:
- Mary Beth Rosson, Program Head/Chair
Steven R. Haynes, Thesis Advisor/Co-Advisor
Benjamin Vincent Hanrahan, Committee Member
Edward J Glantz, Committee Member - Keywords:
- blockchain
micro-credentials
eAsel
competency-based education
smart contracts
ethereum
blockchain certificates
ERC-721
Non-Fungible Tokens
digital badges
blockchain credentials - Abstract:
- Digital academic certificates have recently been gaining attention due to their permanent, and forge-proof properties. An example is the blockchain digital diplomas being issued at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Blockchains are growing lists of records that are the basis for cryptocurrencies. The underlying blockchains that power these digital certifications write their cryptographically backed proofs to an immutable ledger in a way that is transparent to all parties, making them a real and verifiable authority. However, one area of digital credentialing that has not had as much substantial work is academic competencies, which are small units of demonstrated knowledge and skills. Competency-based education uses competencies to teach and certify student progress, and systems exist to track them (such as digital badging), but they do not have the counterfeit-proof authenticity a broad area certificate such as a diploma has. This is because it can become more difficult to prevent forgery the more certifications an organization issues. A public blockchain allows for a universal accreditation medium in which deployed certifications are saved in a decentralized ledger that is known across all users of a blockchain and controlled by no single entity. Although high transaction fees make a digital credentials system cost-prohibitive, as new blockchains scale to provide higher transaction volume, a blockchain-powered certification system could allow for the deployment of more certifications than before, and at greater details. Combined with the ubiquity of the Internet, a public blockchain credentials platform may supplement or even take the place of traditional certification systems and reduce the inherent difficulty of producing proofs of a credential. This thesis aims to explore blockchain backed digital credentialing applied to competency- based education towards an eventual goal of a decentralized micro-credentials ecosystem. In doing so, this thesis describes a system for building and deploying permanent, counterfeit-resistant competency level micro-credentials and the challenges and lessons learned. Using the design research methodology, it implements a blockchain-backed micro-credential system to extend an existing competency web-based education platform known as eAsel. Overall, this thesis found that a blockchain micro-credential certifications system powered by smart contracts could be built after addressing eAsel integration, smart contract design, and user interface design challenges. Future work could focus on standardizing certificates, smart contract federation, TLS signing, and decentralized governance.