Academic institutions around the world have found new ways of facilitating modern learning for their students. The answer to how universities can keep up with modern technology lies in blockchain, which started its life as a means of cryptocurrency transaction.
Blockchain represents a read-only system that doesn’t allow for malicious changes of data points in the user’s favor. In practice, this means that students and teachers will soon have access to rich data repositories which contain trustworthy data and nothing but.
Based on published reports, state and local government blockchain adoption rose to 48.2% in 2020, followed by healthcare at 43.9%. Likewise, data sharing and data reconciliation are among the top factors for blockchain adoption, with 10-15% of worldwide infrastructure expected to use blockchain by 2030.
More and more industries, including IT, finance, and education have begun rapid integration of blockchain-powered platforms and tools for their user bases. So how exactly will blockchain help transform higher education in 2022 and beyond?
Integration of Blockchain-Centric Curriculums
Given how prolific blockchain is becoming in the public’s eye, we can expect blockchain-centric courses and majors in higher education very soon. Students who are interested in IT, finance, business, or other data-related industries can benefit greatly from learning about blockchain early.
By enabling students to learn about blockchain in college, they will become better equipped to find relevant blockchain-related job positions later. Blockchain curriculums can cover most of the basics related to the technology, its policies, government regulations, cryptography, and other related topics.
College students who need to write a custom paper, essay, or research proposal about blockchain can use GetGoodGrade to have papers proofread or edited. This will allow them to focus on learning about blockchain as much as possible to learn how to combine contemporary technologies with traditional higher-ed theory.
Learning Platform Innovation
Universities that use intranet and different internal learning platforms will benefit greatly from using blockchain to manage their learning materials. Students can have access to a wide repository of factual data regarding their courses which teachers can update periodically from the back-end.
In practice, this means that students would always have access to up-to-date research papers, publications, and learning materials without having to search for them themselves. Students can also have access to data generated by startups and companies related to their majors, helping them to prepare for the future job market.
This will ensure that business, finance, and marketing students learn about resource planning, data management, and analytics earlier than their contemporaries did before. Learning platform innovation should be among the top priorities for higher education institutions that plan to introduce blockchain into their curriculums in some manner.
Improved Student Data Records
Student data is extremely important for a higher education institution to function properly. With universities hosting hundreds of students each year and with thousands of alumni, record keeping can become difficult. Blockchain can make the job of keeping student records safe and up-to-date much easier for the administration.
Combined with QuickBooks cloud hosting services, universities can maintain online blockchain-based records of their student alumni. They can also allow active students to access their records, grades, and tuition payments, for example, 24/7 and without having to visit the university.
In higher education, Master’s and Ph.D. students can also run into issues of choosing their thesis if an existing or a familiar paper already exists. Managing academic intellectual property is a non-issue with blockchain at the back-end of university databases.
Student Degree Verification
Once a university accepts blockchain as its data standard, it would become extremely difficult for someone to forge its documentation. This extends to degree verification for alumni who have legitimately completed a course in a university and want to use it for job hunting or studies.
People who claim to have finished a particular university but have instead forged their diplomas won’t be able to do so with blockchain in play. This is an extremely valuable benefit of relying on the blockchain, as a university’s reputation can remain high despite diploma forgery attempts.
Moreover, students who have finished college decades ago may be able to have new diplomas reissued very quickly and without much paperwork involved. Academic credential verification is a contemporary issue which employers have struggled with for years – blockchain is here to make things easier.
Issues with Adopting Blockchain in Higher Education
As with any new piece of technology, adopting blockchain in higher education will present its challenges. While universities can overcome them, it will take years for the groundwork to be set for students to take full advantage of it. Here are some of the potential issues and bottlenecks which we need to account for:
- Economically and technologically, many countries are still behind the standards set by US and EU countries which are blockchain-ready. This can present a problem in the worldwide adoption of blockchain databases.
- Introducing blockchain into existing databases is expensive and time-consuming. This means that blockchain-ready professionals will need to be in charge of implementing the technology around the world. Lack of talent and technological infancy will lead to higher setup and upkeep costs.
- Onboarding professors and education professionals who have spent decades working in certain ways will be challenging. A better solution is to educate up-and-coming teachers and professors to use blockchain technology while older generations are allowed to continue teaching as-is.
- Given how impossible it is to change or forge blockchain data, the question remains of who would be in charge of maintaining higher education databases. Taking the power away from individual colleges to adapt their curriculums independently may cause an uproar in the academic communities worldwide.
Forward unto Blockchain-Enabled Higher Education (Conclusion)
All signs point toward blockchain making higher education easier, more secure, and streamlined when it comes to data indexing and analysis. Time will tell how different universities and colleges around the world will grow to adopt blockchain as their data management standard. With many other industries such as banking, IT, and healthcare leading the charge, higher education is likely the next candidate to fully adopt the technology.
Author’s bio. Jessica Fender is a copywriter and blogger with a background in marketing and sales. She enjoys sharing her experience with like-minded professionals who aim to provide customers with high-quality services.
