Blockchain in Education Industry – Benefits and Needs

Like other technologies emerging worldwide, blockchain technology is there to revolutionize the entire education system. 

Verifying academic records and assessing student credentials is time-consuming for educators, but blockchain technology revolves around such issues. 

As you can see from the figures, Blockchain will account for a larger market share in the education segment by 2028. 

So, why not leverage this technology to stand out from others. 

Let’s discuss the benefits of blockchain technology and its importance in the education sector.  

What is Blockchain Technology? 

You have heard about various cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin and Ethereum. These currencies are powered by a technology called Blockchain. According to Coinbase, Blockchain comprises a list of transactions anyone can view and verify.  

Blockchain is a distributed ledger that records information, making it impossible for anyone to change, hack, or manipulate information.   

The information stored in the blockchain ledger is highly secured. Besides that, blockchain technology facilitates transparency by allowing the participants to have visibility into the transactions. 

Because of its decentralized nature, several industries use blockchain technology, and the education sector is one of those. 

According to International data incorporation, global spending on blockchain technology increased from $4 billion in 2020 to more than $14 billion by 2023.  

Blockchain in education is used for various purposes, such as students can excel in learning skills such as poetry or become math geniuses and get rewarded through blockchain-based educational tools. 

Blockchain is a blessing for the education sector in the following ways:  

• Blockchain in education offers rewards to students and teachers when they use cryptocurrency. Such an approach motivates students to learn and perform better.  
• It offers copyright protection wherein research papers cannot be modified or copied by anyone. The prime objective of this technology is to securely store the data.  
• Smart contracts make the job of educators easier as Blockchain allows educators to manage course content and distribution. 

Why is Blockchain Technology Important in Education?  

Security has become a major concern for everyone, and blockchain technology comes to your head when such concerns arise. Data breaches have been increasing rapidly, and student data with less security has become a hot commodity for cybercriminals. 

Besides that, student verification has become a major concern for educational premises, and it’s easy for cybercriminals to create fake identities. 

Earlier, the verification process was confined to schools and colleges. It was easy for candidates to defend employers who claim to have degrees but don’t. In this case, smart contracts are a strong weapon for fighting against fake qualifications. 

Benefits of Blockchain in the Education Industry 

Here are various benefits of Blockchain in the education industry-  

1. Improved Data Security 

Blockchain in the education sector offers various benefits, one of which is improving data security. Because Blockchain is decentralized, it makes it impossible for unauthorized parties to access student records. 

Moreover, it becomes important for educational institutions to store students’ academic records securely. 

Currently, educational premises store student records in centralized databases, which are exposed to data breaches. With blockchain technology in education, data breaches can be reduced significantly. 

2. Record Keeping  

There are infinite student records, so it’s difficult for educational institutions to maintain them. Verifying students’ records with other documents is a tedious process. But, using blockchain technology can save hours and reduce costs for educators. 

Consider an example where a student wants to transfer from one school to another, and verification of documents is time-consuming. 

By implementing blockchain technology in schools, the verification process of diplomas, certificates, or credentials can be streamlined, and the school can upload documents to the Blockchain. Any other school/educator or employer can verify documents digitally. 

Consequently, it reduces stress on employers as they no longer need to perform laborious checks to verify applicant credentials. 

3. Executing Automatic Lessons and Courses 

With smart contracts powered by Blockchain, educators need not bombard themselves with creating and managing course content. To put it simply, smart contracts comprise a set of rules that perform processes only when certain conditions are met. 

As an educator, you can automatically execute lessons and tasks using smart contract capable Blockchain. Earlier, educators had to worry about storing everything in hard drives where security was a major concern. 

With blockchain technology, lessons and courses can be programmed into the system, and smart contracts are there to check the status of tasks. 

Imagine a scenario where the teacher assigns assignments to students in Blockchain, and smart contracts verify the completion of tasks. Upon the completion of tasks, students get credit for it.  

4. Copyright Protection 

In the academic world, plagiarism is a major concern for educational institutions. Additionally, it’s expensive for students to copy the content while writing term papers and research papers. More importantly, universities can cancel student credentials for content duplication. 

But Blockchain solves the problem of content producers and researchers. There won’t be any online distribution of content. All academic information is secured and stored in Blockchain, and only authorized users can access digital information. 

Thus, Blockchain acts as a lifesaver for content creators as the data stored once in Blockchain cannot be manually changed because of cutting-edge encryption technology. Meanwhile, the owner can track the usage of content with the help of blockchain technology. 

5. Blockchain Reduces Education Expenses 

With Blockchain in education, institutions can save their costs by spending less time and money on administrative activities. 

Paying tuition fees for students is time-consuming as it involves various stakeholders such as students, scholarship foundations, parents, lenders, university departments, etc. 

Even hiring additional staff and doing irresponsible spending unnecessarily increases educational expenses by overpricing tuition fees. 

So, Blockchain aims to transform the landscape in the education sector by cutting down administrative expenses and reducing students’ tuition costs.  

6. Lessens the Incidence of Educational Fraud 

Many such times, job seekers try to get a job by giving incorrect information about educational qualifications. Furthermore, they produce fake documents and mark sheets, and the organization employs unqualified candidates. 

So, blockchain technology solves this problem by creating a decentralized ledger that creates an immutable record of each student at an institution, the diplomas they received, and the grades they obtained. This makes the selection process much easier for hiring managers. 

7. Self-Acquired Learning Data by Students 

Implementing blockchain technology in education allows students to store their credentials, skills learned, etc., securely. Their information is not owned and controlled by a central authority like a university. Students can have lifelong control over their data.  

Additionally, students can prove the accuracy of the information they put in their resumes. 

Wrapping Up 

So, this guide provided you with a comprehensive list of benefits blockchain technology offers in streamlining your education system. Blockchain revolutionized everything and gave an end to the paper-based certification system. 

It provides muti fold benefits to educators and brings more transparency in the education system such as improved data security, record keeping, reduced incidence of educational fraud, verifying the entire records of students, and much more. 

This makes it easier for hiring managers of the organization to select the students by verifying available information in Blockchain. 

Contact our blockchain app development experts if you need help integrating blockchain technology into your organization. We provide you with secure, efficient, and scalable blockchain app development solutions catering to your business needs.