‘It Has a Lot of Potential!’: Use of Blockchain Technology for Education Records

Abstract

The paper explores the perceptions of university students and their desired features on the use of blockchain technology for the management of education records. A literature review forms the theoretical basis of the research allowing to explore how education records are managed nowadays and the potential for the use of blockchain technology in this area. The theoretical framework is then used to discuss the research findings.
The research adopts the interpretive qualitative approach and collects data through a focus group interview with university students. Computer assisted thematic data analysis yields five key themes: current usage of university education records, understanding how blockchain works, sustainability of blockchain, security of blockchain and implementation of blockchain for education records. Participants were generally positive towards the use of blockchain for the management of education records and saw it as one of the potential future solutions. Nevertheless, they voiced some reservations regarding the high energy consumption, costs and security towards a possible use of the blockchain technology. Therefore, careful implementation would be needed, with increased focus on usability, solving some security and sustainability issues and ensuring a fair and transparent access model.
This research contributes to the current body of knowledge within informatics by empowering students to share their perception of possible development of student record systems based on blockchain technology. It also provides insights which can be used in the future to achieve a more user focused design of education records management systems.