Global Transitions Proceedings 2 (2021) 355–361

Contents lists available at ScienceDirect

Global Transitions Proceedings

journal homepage: http://www.keaipublishing.com/en/journals/global-transitions-proceedings/

The future of continuous learning–Digital badge and microcredential

system using blockchain
Varshinee Chukowry a, Geeaneswari Nanuck a, Roopesh Kevin Sungkur a,∗
a
Faculty of Information Communication and Digital Technologies, University of Mauritius, Reduit, Mauritius

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Keywords: Continuous Learning is seen as the key to remain competitive and effective at work. Very often, this also takes
Blockchain place outside the walls of a classroom. Nowadays Digital Badges and microcredentials are pathways to acknowl-
Continuous learning edge and recognize achievements and specific skills of a learner. In this research, the different techniques used
Digital badge
in existing blockchain-based educational systems have been reviewed and in the end, a novel web-based digital
Ethereum
badge and microcredentials system which helps the learners to acquire the desired skills is proposed. For the
Microcredential
Blockchain, Ethereum has been used and to develop the front end ReactJS has been used. A digital badging and
micro-credential system consisting of quizzes and digital badges was built with Ethereum blockchain together
with ipfs to store the badge image and firebase for examination, registration, and storing courses. The proposed
system proved to be very much beneficial and addressed the inherent limitations of traditional learning content
management systems (LCMS).

1. Introduction to develop a micro credential system which proves to be the alternative

Continuous Learning has become an important part of a person’s life
nowadays to have a secured future. In addition, with the rapidly grow-
ing industries, continuous learning is a must to keep up with the lat-
est trends. To satisfy the need of people, micro-credential has been in-
troduced allowing people to take short career-oriented courses at their
own time and pace. However, since micro-credentials are short dura-
tion, rewards such as digital badges are generated frequently thus is-
suing and verifying the micro-credential in a short period can be chal-
lenging moreover digital badges can be falsified by users making them
trustless. To help people keeping up with the trend and improving their
skills, a micro-credential and digitila badging application that will pro-
vide users access to career-oriented courses, appears to be the perfect
solution. To tackle the problem of security, blockchain will be intro-
duced in our system. The popularity of blockchain keeps on increasing
and application other than in the finance field is being developed [11].
For example, blockchain is used in education to provide tamperproof
certificates. Furthermore, blockchain is well known for its immutability
and decentralized making it an ideal technology to implement with our
micro-credential system, consisting of short courses, quizzes, and digital
badges as rewards.
Blockchain technology demonstrate the quality of security and trans-
parency that guarantees that data cannot be altered as well as keep its
records intact. This is the reason why this technology fits perfectly well
of the traditional upskilling of professionals. The aim is to offer courses
that can overcome the financial barriers of students. Moreover, it aims to
make learning flexible whereby a person can learn at his own timeframe
from anywhere and at his own pace [12]. On top of that, micro creden-
tials system promotes career-focused learning where one can learn new
skills as well as upgrade one’s skills to keep up with the rapidly growing
industries nowadays. Another important point is that, the durability of
a typical micro credential course last for 10 weeks to a year which does
not bound a person to be time and cost committed. Another aspect of
the proposed system is to provide a digital badge as recognition upon
course completion [13].
To upgrade their skill, an individual can attend a short course which
is provided by many institutions and after completion, they get a man-
ual certificate. However manual certificates can be a disadvantage since
details of the skill acquired are not present due to space limitation. Be-
sides, if someone attends many short courses this will increase the num-
ber of certificates which will be an inconvenience to present during a
job interview, and also a manual certificate can be lost or damaged and
a lot of time and money is required to obtain it again [14-16]. With the
advance of technology, short courses are also hosted online but people
may not trust unknown organization due to common security issue that
is encounter online. Besides, the user will not be the owner of the digital
certificate if the system uses a database to store them as the database
need a third party. So, if the organization stop hosting the course on-

∗
Corresponding author at: University of Mauritius, Faculty of Information Communication and Digital Technologies, Mauritius
E-mail address: r.sungkur@uom.ac.mu (R.K. Sungkur).

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gltp.2021.08.026
Received 30 June 2021; Accepted 7 July 2021
Available online 12 August 2021
2666-285X/© 2021 The Authors. Publishing Services by Elsevier B.V. on behalf of KeAi Communications Co. Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC
BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/)
V. Chukowry, G. Nanuck and R.K. Sungkur
line, the certificate may become invalid or the user can even lose all the
certificate if the database crash. Furthermore, the user can falsify the
certificate since it is digital [17-19].
2. Related Works
2.1. Overview of Blockchain
Blockchain can look on as a public ledger where information such as
transactions, contracts, or anything in its digital form is stored in blocks
and shared by a group of people in a decentralized peer-to-peer network.
Each new block is added at the end of the chain and all the blocks are
cryptographically hash to their neighbor. Cryptography together with
consensus algorithms is used to provide security and consistency in the
blockchain. Furthermore, blockchain is well known for its immutable
which makes it ideal for businesses that need high reliability and truth-
fulness as data once store in a blockchain cannot be altered or deleted
[20-22].
2.2. Block
[1] describe the structure of block in the blockchain as consisting of
2 parts namely the header and the body.
1 The block header consists of:
○ Block version: consists of the rule to validate a block
○ Merkle tree root hash [2]
Merkle tree is a tree where the value of the parent node is hashes
of the child nodes and it uses a bottom-up approach for hashing.
Merkle roots are used to verify a set of transactions because if
there are any changes in the transaction the Merkle root will also
change. Merkle root also provides proof of the present and order
of a transaction.
○ Timestamp: The time when a new block is created is recorded
in the header as seconds in the universal time since January 1,
1970
○ nBits: refer to the target entry of a valid block hash.
○ Nonce: a four-byte field that normally begins with zero and for
each hash calculation increases
○ Parent block hash: SHA-256 is used to obtain the hash value that
points to the neighboring block.
2 The block body
The transaction and the transaction counter are stored in the body of
the block in the blockchain. The maximum number of transactions that
can be found in a block will depend on the size of the block and the size
of each transaction.
2.3. Consensus algorithms
Being distributed, the user may not trust all the nodes in the
blockchain as there can be a malicious node. There should be an agree-
ment among the node about the contents of the blockchain and how
to store information in the block. To achieve trust in the blockchain a
consensus algorithm is used. Examples are:
2.3.1. Proof of work (PoW)
Since blockchain is a decentralized network, a node is selected ran-
domly to add new blocks to the blockchain. However, there is the risk of
attack in the network due to the presence of malicious nodes. To make
sure that the node is an honest one, the node will have to do a lot of
work to prove it [1]. The work that must be done by the node is to
find the solution for a special mathematical problem using specialize
hardware together with electricity which acts as power [3]. Each node
has to calculate a hash value of the block in PoW, these nodes are also
referred to as miner. Miner would change the nonce which is present
in the block header often to obtain a different hash value. To meet a
356
Global Transitions Proceedings 2 (2021) 355–361
consensus, this value must be equal or smaller than a particularly given
value. Once a node gets the target value, he will send it to the other
nodes, who will confirm if the hash value is correct. If every node in the
blockchain confirms that the block is valid, they will add the new block
in their blockchain. Since blockchain is a decentralized network, mul-
tiple nodes might found the suitable nonce at approximately the same
time, resulting in the formation of valid blocks simultaneously. In this
case, branches will be formed as shown below. To solve this, the longer
branch is taken as the valid one [1].
2.3.2. Proof of stake (PoS)
In PoW, miners waste a lot of resources as they have a lot of computer
calculations to do. An alternative consensus algorithm is Proof of stake
which saves more energy. In PoS, the miner needs to provide evidence
of the ownership of the amount of currency. It is believed that people
who have more currencies have less chance to attack the network [1].
2.3.3. Smart contract
Smart contract is a program that is stored in the blockchain. It con-
sists of a set of pre-defined conditions normally in the form of if-then-else
rules. When these rules are satisfied a pre-defined action is executed ac-
cordingly. Ethereum smart contract uses the Ethereum Virtual Machine
to run and the code is written in a stack-based bytecode language. So-
lidity and serpent can be used as high-level languages to write a smart
contract. Since a smart contract is used in a decentralized network, there
should be an agreement among the party about the details of the con-
tract and the terms and conditions. When all the parties agree and signed
the contract, it is added to the blockchain as a program code and it is ex-
ecuted automatically without the need of a third party hence providing
trust and anonymity among nodes [4].
2.4. Micro credential and digital badges
A micro-credential program helps students to build skills outside
the classroom by providing courses that cover specified skills. It is usu-
ally more than a single course but shorter than a full degree. A micro-
credential is also a “visual representation of your capability” and is
awarded using a digital badge [5]. Digital badges can be described as
an image file that contains information that provides evidence about the
skill, experience, and knowledge a person has acquired after complete
a course or some activities online [6]. The main key factor of badges is
motivation as badges can be used as a way to motivate people to com-
plete tasks, so before creating badges the basic principle of how and why
people are motivated with badges should be studied [7].
A digital badge consists of 3 components
i Signifier: it is the visual part of the badge that is the image that
represents the badge. It includes a unique name, a description of the
badge and it can also include a hint on how to obtain the badges.
ii Completion logic: that is the requirement to obtain the badge.
It consists of
a Trigger: indicate what the person must do to obtain the badge
b Pre-requirement: the requirement that must be satisfied before
activating the trigger.
c Conditions to earn the badge.
d Multiplier: how many times the person has to meet the require-
ment to obtain the badge.
iii Reward: what the user will get after getting the badge. Digital badge
also contains a clickable hyperlink to view more information that
is metadata. Metadata consists of the date the badge was awarded,
the issuer, or any other relevant data. Metadata can be added using
JavaScript object notation for linked data (JSON-LD).
V. Chukowry, G. Nanuck and R.K. Sungkur
Fig. 1. Structure of the proposed system for E-Learning Assessment and Certi-
fication
2.5. Existing educational systems making use of microcredentials and
blockchain
2.5.1. A blockchain system for E-learning assessment and certification
This system aims to solve the weaknesses of e-learning by decreas-
ing the complexity of online assessment, making e-learning assessment
standards uniform, and improve the security of digital certificates [8].
There are 2 types of users in this network shown above:
Learning user: Anyone who wants to take a course will have to
apply for a personal account to connect to the network. Under their ac-
count, there is a certificate wallet and a minimum of one-course credit
wallet which is used to store the credits obtained by the user when doing
online activities. After completing a course, the user can exchange the
course credits with the digital certificates of the course, and the achieve-
ment score of that certificate is stored in the certificate wallet which can
be exchanged to obtain the corresponding voucher reward.
Education Authorities: Any education institutions that want to pro-
vide an online course or exam in the system have to join as an education
authority. Before a course is officially launched, the education author-
ity node has to write the rule of the assessment of their course in a
smart contract to calculate the course credit. Once the education au-
thority submits the smart contract and the learner users accept it, the
smart contract is placed in the blockchain and the education authority
is not the owner of the contract to make the system autonomous. Fur-
thermore, only the education authority can provide a digital certificate
of their courses.
As shown in Fig. 1 the structure consists of 3 kinds of network and
2 types of blockchain namely public and private.
i) Learning user network (LUN)
Show as the biggest red area, this network is a fully decentralized
peer to peer network which consists of learning users’ nodes. Learning
users can communicate with each other by sending messages anony-
mously with their account identities.
ii) Education certification network (ECN)
357
Global Transitions Proceedings 2 (2021) 355–361
This network is fully decentralized peer to peer and it consists of ed-
ucation authority nodes. There is an Education certification (EC) pub-
lic blockchain corresponding to each ECN which is managed by every
node in ECN. When a new digital certificate is issued, the certificate is
sent to all the nodes in ECN for verification using the consensus mecha-
nism. Once the digital certificate is verified its corresponding authority
encrypted it as a digital signature and store it permanently in the EC
public blockchain.
iii) Learning Assessment Local network (LALN)
LALN is constructed by an education authority as the center node
and it consists of its real-time learning node who can obtain notes and
information from them. For each LALN there is a corresponding learning
assessment (LA) private blockchain which contains the smart contract
for the course credit. Furthermore, the learning users can allow their
employer to verify their digital certificate when applying for a job, by
inviting them to temporarily have access to the EC public blockchain.
This system has 3 detailed design schemes for smart contracts:
i) To achieve the e-learning assessment and credit exchange
ii) To issue the digital certificate and store in securely
iii) To allocate e-learning voucher
2.5.2. Online quiz implementation using blockchain technology for result
tampering prevention
This system is used to create and solve quizzes and prevent results to
be tampered which is part of our system [9]. Technology used includes
1) Angular 6.0 framework which uses HTML, CSS, and Typescript
is used for the front end. Angular is chosen instead of JavaScript
frameworks such as Vue.js and React as third parties’ libraries are
not needed in angular. However angular have a long migration
process and lacks documentation details.
2) Firebase for back-end is used as a real-time database to store login
details and quiz. Firebase is chosen as it allows data to be store in
a cloud easily and also allows real-time connection for all devices.
To prevent result tampering blockchain is used. Once a quiz is sub-
mitted, the quiz grade is stored in the database then a new block is added
to the blockchain.
The block structure consists of:
• Data: user details of the person who take the quiz, quiz grade, and
the date.
• A hash of the previous block is obtained from the database.
• The hash is obtained by using the SHA256 algorithm with the block’s
data and the hash of the neighboring block.
• Nounce is used to calculate the proof of work. The calculation is
done in the client browser using Typescript.
2.5.3. EduCTX: a blockchain-based higher education credit platform
EduCTX is a credit and grading system for higher education that uses
blockchain to create trust in the system [10]. EduCTX is based on the
idea of the European Credit Transfer and Accumulation System (ECTS).
Every student in the distributed peer-to-peer network process a wallet
where their respective tokens are stored after completing a course. The
design structure of EduCTX is shown in Fig. 2 below.
EduCTX is based on the Dpos consensus protocol which means that
no computing power is required. ARK blockchain is used to implement
EduCTX as the code base for ARK is flexible and open source. Also,
the client API implementation can be access easily and it can be imple-
mented by more than 12 types of programming language thus allowing
nodes to join the platform using their desire language.
2.6. Blockchain-based e-learning systems v/s traditional e-learning systems
Table 1 highlights the advantage of using blockchain for e-learning
instead of database which is used by nearly all traditional e-learning
platform.
V. Chukowry, G. Nanuck and R.K. Sungkur
Table 1
Comparison between blockchain and database
Blockchain
1. There is trust among unknown user in blockchain as every node have the same
priority and any node can verify transactions that are added.
2 Data added in a blockchain is immutable as all the data are connected using a hash
which will change if the data is changed.
3 All users have a copy of the blockchain hence the blockchain will still exist even if
some nodes are left.
4 The student will be the owner of all their achievement received online (digital
badge/digital certificate).
5 An employer can verify a digital certificate/badge in the blockchain system without
anyone’s intervention.
Fig. 2. Design structure of EduCTX
3. Methods
In the proposed system, Ethereum blockchain technology will be in-
corporated in the digital badge and in the examination app. The tech-
nology is traceable, tamper-proof and encrypted and its main purpose
is to eradicate the problem of fake certificates/recognitions. Blockchain
will also be used to achieve a secure peer-to-peer communication and
for decentralization.
3.1. Main components of proposed system
The system will consist of 4 main parts and a system architecture
is shown in Fig. 3. A flowchart for academics to create examinations is
shown in Fig. 4.
1 Authentication
This process is done with the help of Firebase Realtime Database
with components including Sign-up, Sign In and Logout. Both the
users namely learner and academic will login by providing correct
credentials.
2 Course Management
After successful authentication of academic, he will be able to add
courses. The academic can also edit the details of the courses, he
358
Global Transitions Proceedings 2 (2021) 355–361
Database
The administrator is the one who controls the data so there is no trust in the system.
Data can be changed by people having access to the database or people can hack the
database to change data and the changes will be unnoticeable as there is no
evidence.
All data can be lost if the database crash.
The digital certificate/digital badges will exist as long as the database exists that is if
the organization stops hosting the e-learning platform the student will lose their
data store in the database.
If any classification is needed the administrator needs to be contacted.
Fig. 3. System Architecture
can also delete a course and can view the courses he has added.
After successful authentication of the learner, he/she will be able to
view courses added by an academic.
3 Examination on Blockchain
The next step would be the creation of an examination. To do so,
the academic need to enter the contract address generated by Truffle.
Then, he/she needs to connect to metamask by importing his private
key. He/She can then add the examination topic, the entrance Fee,
the number of marks, the question, 1 correct answer and 3 other
wrong answers. He/She can then confirm the transaction of adding
his examination question in metamask.
To take an examination, the learner must first import his private
key in the metamask account. The learner will then able to view the
exam questions entered by the academic. He/She will select the first
question. The system will then prompt the user whether he wants to
pay the entrance fee or not to answer the question. The user can then
confirm/reject the transaction to pay. After successful payment, the user
will be able to view and attempt the question. A good answer will enable
him to apply for a badge.
1 Badge Allocation
The digital badge will contain an image and the metadata that is all
courses that the learner has completed and the skills required. This
badge can afterwards be accessed by an employer of a company.
Being in possession of digital badges encourage students to spend
more time to explore more courses and aim to get more badges. Just
like in sports, medals are given value, receiving a digital badge for
an achievement feels more rewarding.
V. Chukowry, G. Nanuck and R.K. Sungkur
Fig. 4. Flowchart for academic to create examination
Badge Creation: For a student who has completed his examination
and who has applied for a badge, the lecturer can create a digital badge
for the student. The title of the badge, description, criteria and the ad-
dress for the student are entered by the academic and he must confirm
the transaction of adding a badge in metamask.
View Badge: The student needs to use his metamask account to view
his badge and the in the student profile, the student need to enter his
name and email.
Search Badge: Any user including student and lecturer can search for
a badge allocated to a student to recognize the skills of the student by
inserting the student ID and the address of the student.
4. Results
4.1. Environment for implementation
1. Ganache: Ganache is installed to have a private local network
which is used to develop the application, deploy smart contract,
and also 10 accounts with 100 ether each are provided to test the
application before deploying it in a mainnet.
2. Nodejs: To configure the environment to develop a smart con-
tract, NPM is needed which is obtained by installing node js. Once
nodejs has successfully installed, webjs is the next dependency
required. Web3js is a set of libraries that are needed to allow in-
teraction between the Ethereum blockchain and the front end.
Web3js has been install using NPM by executing the following
command in Powershell, ‘npm install web3’.
3. Truffle framework: Truffle is installed to enable the development
of Ethereum smart contacts using the programming language
solidity and it compiles them to bytecode which is run on the
Ethereum virtual machine. Truffle can compile a smart contract,
359
Global Transitions Proceedings 2 (2021) 355–361
Fig. 5. Smart Contract Implementation
deploy and migrate the smart contract to any Ethereum network
using the command ‘truffle compile’ and ‘truffle migrate’ respec-
tively.
4. Metamask Ethereum wallet
To convert the web browser to a blockchain one Metamask extension
for firefox has been installed.
4.2. Smart contract implementation
All the logic for the system is written in the smart contract using the
solidity programming language. Code snippets of Smart contract imple-
mentation is shown in Fig. 5.
Mapping is used to store data using a key-value pair.
For our smart contract 3 mapping was created:
• lecturerProfiles and studentProfiles are used to store details of lec-
turer and student respectively.
• For the badges mapping a nested mapping is used. The Ethereum
address is used as the key which will map the 2nd mapping as value,
the 2nd mapping has a key of uint type that will map a struct name
Badge.
Events for badge created, student added, and lecturer added were
created. This allows the application to know the current state of the
smart contract.
Function to add the lecturer.
The variable Lecturer is assigned msg.sender which means the cur-
rent Ethereum address. So the current address that the user will use to
create profit will be set to a lecturer to be able to distinguish it from
other addresses. Count is the id for the lecturer and it is used as the key
for mapping the lecturer profile. This function will emit the lecturerAdd
event.
Function to register student: The function AddStudent is similar to
the AddLecturer function but here no variable is assigned to msg.sender.
Function to add badges: ‘Require’ is used to ensure that the user
enters all the fields when creating the badge. The msg.sender is also
required to be Lecturer, which has been assigned when the lecturer is
registered. The nested mapping map the student address with their re-
spective badge and ‘now’ is used to get the timestamp when the badge
is created.
4.3. Front end
1. Web3j is used to convert the client-side application to a blockchain
application. This is shown in Fig. 6.
2. Then the data for the blockchain is loaded.
Web3.eth.getAccounts() is used to get the current metamask ac-
count.
After that, the smart contract is converted to a javascript version.
The badge, studentProfile, and the lecturerProfile mapping are called
in this function and a for loop is used to iterate through the mapping.
The code to load blockchain data is shown in Fig. 7.
V. Chukowry, G. Nanuck and R.K. Sungkur Global Transitions Proceedings 2 (2021) 355–361

Fig.6. code to load web3js

Fig. 8. Student Profile

Fig. 7. Code to load blockchain data

4.4. Graphical user interfaces

This section shows some of the GUI of the system. Fig. 8 shows stu-
dent profile whereas Fig. 9 shows the interface available for an academic
to create an exam. Fig. 10 shows a learner’s digital badge.

5. Discussion Fig. 9. Create Exam Interface for Academic

Our system overcomes the weakness present in the traditional e-

learning platform.
• The system provides trust among the node as Ethereum uses proof
of stake.
• The digital badge is tamperproof which means that any employer
can trust the badge that was awarded to the student without much
verification.
• In addition, the student will be the owner of their badges and they
can be guaranteed that they will be lost their badge due to the ab-
sence of a single point of failure.
• The course and examination system are not dependent on each other,
so the system not only provides a complete platform to host micro-
credential but can also be used as an examination or digital badge
system individually.
• One principle of blockchain is that data can only be added or re-
trieve, so once data is inputted it cannot be deleted, which introduce
a strength in the badge system as when the issuer registration details
are added to the blockchain, it will stay as long as the blockchain ex-
ist hence the student can trust and keep track of their issuer.
• The proposed system enables the student to trust their issuer and on
the other hand, the employer can trust the student badge. In addi-
tion, with the covid-19 pandemic, e-learning is favored so our sys-
Fig. 10. Student Badge
tem will be a great tool to provide secure examinations, and also

360
V. Chukowry, G. Nanuck and R.K. Sungkur
the student can have a trustworthy and tamperproof digital badge
to represent all their achievements.
6. Conclusion
The world is facing an unprecedented situation with the rapid rise in
Covid-19, impacting on all spheres of life. The world of Education has
not been spared of this phenomenon, with millions of learners not be-
ing able to attend schools and universities. While education profession-
als are fighting to find means to continue with the education process,
questions are raised as to whether proposed solutions are effective. It
is clear that e-learning and technology-enhanced learning remains the
way forward in this difficult situation. Most universities and schools are
already moving in this direction. In this research, a web-based micro-
credential system has been devised to allow students learn new skills or
even enhance their skills in an easy, shorter and flexible manner. This
became more interesting with Blockchain technology which is a secure,
immutable and decentralized system gaining trust of students which
far better than traditional eLearning platforms. A micro-credential sys-
tem consisting of quizzes and digital badges was built with Ethereum
blockchain together with ipfs to store the badge image and firebase for
examination, registration, and storing courses. It can be said that it is
more convenient to choose a micro credential system because of its cost,
its time span, recognition, the skills provided and also a learner can eas-
ily complete more courses in the time span of one traditional course at
the university. Learners can easily select their desired courses to take
examination and earn a recognition. Universities can use the system to
allow learners access their courses and examinations and provide learn-
ers with meaningful badges. Future works include the development of a
mobile version of the system that will allow the learners to easily access
the digital badges.
References
[1] Z. Zheng, S. Xie, H. Dai, X. Chen, H. Wang, An Overview of Blockchain Tech-
nology: Architecture, Consensus, and Future Trends, in: 2017 IEEE International
Congress on Big Data (BigData Congress), 2017, pp. 557–564, doi:10.1109/BigDat-
aCongress.2017.85. doi:.
[2] S. Dhumwad, M. Sukhadeve, C Naik, K.N Manjunath, S. Prabhu, A peer to peer
money transfer using SHA256 and Merkle tree, 23rd Annual International Confer-
ence in Advanced Computing and Communications (ADCOM), 2017.
[3] J. Golosova, A. Romanovs, “The advantages and disadvantages of the blockchain
technology,”, 2018 IEEE 6th Workshop on Advances in Information, Electronic and
Electrical Engineering (AIEEE), 2018.
[4] Wang, S., Yuan, Y., Wang, X., Li, J. & Qin, R. (2018). An Overview
of Smart Contract: Architecture, Applications, and Future Trends. 108-113.
10.1109/IVS.2018.8500488.
361
Global Transitions Proceedings 2 (2021) 355–361
[5] A. Hanafy, Features and Affordances of Micro-credential Platforms in Higher Edu-
cation Master of Science Thesis, Tampere University Master’s Degree Programme in
Industrial Engineering and Management, 2020.
[6] Fanfarelli, J. R. and McDaniel, R. (2019) Designing Effective Dig-
ital Badges: Applications for Learning, Book4you.org. Available at:
https://book4you.org/book/10992765/63d874 (Accessed: March 17, 2021).
[7] L.E. Ellis, S.G. Nunn, J.T. Avella, Digital badges and micro-credentials: Historical
overview, motivational aspects, issues, and challenges,”, in: Foundation of Digi-
tal Badges and Micro-Credentials, Springer International Publishing, Cham, 2016,
pp. 3–21.
[8] C. Li, J. Guo, G. Zhang, Y. Wang, Y. Sun, R. Bie, A Blockchain System for E-Learning
Assessment and Certification,", in: 2019 IEEE International Conference on Smart In-
ternet of Things (SmartIoT), 2019, pp. 212–219, doi:10.1109/SmartIoT.2019.00040.
doi:.
[9] E.-C. Tentea, V.M. Ionescu, Online quiz implementation using blockchain technology
for result tampering prevention, 2019 11th International Conference on Electronics,
Computers and Artificial Intelligence (ECAI), 2019.
[10] M. Turkanovic, M. Hölbl, K. Košič, M. Heričko, A. Kamišalić, EduCTX: A
blockchain-based higher education credit platform, IEEE Access: Pract. Innov., Open
sol. 6 (2018) 5112–5127.
[11] H.A.M. Deenmahomed, M.M. Didier, R.K. Sungkur, The future of university edu-
cation: Examination, transcript, and certificate system using blockchain, Comput.
Appl. Eng. Educ. (2021) 1–23 https://doi.org/, doi:10.1002/cae.22381.
[12] D. Shah, D. Patel, J. Adesara, P. Hingu, M Shah, Exploiting the Capabilities of
Blockchain and Machine Learning in Education, Augment Hum. Res. 6 (2021) 1
https://doi.org/, doi:10.1007/s41133-020-00039-7.
[13] G. Caldarelli, J. Ellul, Trusted Academic Transcripts on the Blockchain, Appl. Sci. 11
(2021) 1842 https://doi.org/, doi:10.3390/app11041842.
[14] R.K. Dash, T.N. Nguyen, K. Cengiz, A. Sharma, Fine-tuned support vector regression
model for stock predictions, Neural Comput. Appl. (2021) 1–15.
[15] P. Subramani, G.B. Rajendran, J. Sengupta, R. Pérez de Prado, P.B. Divakarachari,
A block bi-diagonalization-based pre-coding for indoor multiple-input-multiple-out-
put-visible light communication system, Energies 13 (13) (2020) 3466.
[16] Z. Li., Z Ma, A blockchain-based credible and secure education experience data
management scheme supporting for searchable encryption, China Commun. 18 (6)
(2021) 172–183 doi:, doi:10.23919/JCC.2021.06.014.
[17] G. Chandrasekaran, T.N. Nguyen, D.J. Hemanth, Multimodal sentimental analysis
for social media applications: A comprehensive review, Wiley Interdiscip. Rev.: Data
Min. Knowl. Discov. (2021) e1415.
[18] B.D. Parameshachari, R.P. Kiran, P. Rashmi, M.C. Supriya, Rajashekarappa,
H.T. Panduranga, Controlled partial image encryption based on LSIC and chaotic
map, ICCSP (2019) 60–63.
[19] D. Mourtzis, J. Angelopoulos, N. Panopoulos, Blockchain in Engineering Education:
The Teaching Factory Paradigm (June 3, 2021), in: Proceedings of the Conference on
Learning Factories (CLF) 2021, 2021 Available at SSRN, doi:10.2139/ssrn.3859151.
[20] M.A. Naeem, T.N. Nguyen, R. Ali, K. Cengiz, Y. Meng, T. Khurshaid, Hybrid Cache
Management in IoT-based Named Data Networking, IEEE Internet Things J. (2021).
[21] S.N. Shivappriya, S. Karthikeyan, S. Prabu, R. Pérez de Prado, B.D. Parameshachari,
A modified ABC-SQP-based combined approach for the optimization of a parallel
hybrid electric vehicle, Energies 13 (17) (2020) 4529.
[22] L. Tan, N. Shi, K. Yu, M. Aloqaily, Y. Jararweh, “A Blockchain-Empowered Access
Control Framework for Smart Devices in Green Internet of Things”, ACM Trans.
Internet Technol. 21 (3) (2021) 1–20 https://doi.org/, doi:10.1145/3433542.