A Blockchain Platform For Teaching Services Among The Students
VASILEIOS YFANTIS, KLIMIS NTALIANIS
Department of Business Administration
University of West Attica
250 Thivon & P. Ralli str, Egaleo
GREECE
Abstract: - The lack of digital literacy in the student community is high and depends on the academic
background of the student. Although the skills gap can be filled by hiring additional academic staff and
improving learning methods, it is obvious that funds or teaching time are not enough to cope with these
changes. Our academic effort proposes a blockchain platform maintained by the students, which allows the
students to exchange teaching duties and teach each other digital skills. The students adopt the role of the
lecturer or the learner and receive reputation points as a reward. The platform is designed by using a gamified
type of blockchain technology because it empowers a trustful and entertaining method for the exchange of
teaching duties between the students.
Key-Words: - Blockchain, digital literacy, smart contract, digital skills, higher education, gamification
Received: August 15, 2021. Revised: March 22, 2022. Accepted: April 27, 2022. Published: June 7, 2022.
1 Introduction
Digital literacy is a term synonym with the
sufficient knowledge of the information
communication technologies by the people and
especially the workforce. The term was initially
defined by Paul Gilster in 1997. According to
Gilster digital literacy is the smart use of the digital
technology and the retrieved information in the
context of the everyday life [1]. In 2019, the
government of the United Kingdom of Great Britain
commissioned a research through the Department
for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS). The
scope of the research was to detect the demand for
digital skills in the UK and then define a skills’
policy. The statistics were impressive and
demonstrated the value of the digital skills. Digital
skills are in demand from at least 82% of the online-
advertised job openings in the UK and companies
requiring digital skills pay 29% higher salaries than
those that do not [2]. The need for digital skills is
obvious, especially in our era where the Covid-19
situation forces most of the workers to adjust
themselves in a distant working environment with
the help of ICT. Even if the demand for digital skills
is high, the actual capability of digital skills is low
at the European Union level. As stated in the report
of the Eurostat, during the year 2019, almost half of
the European population (56%) has basic or above
basic overall digital skills [3]. In other words, due to
lack of digital skills, the other half of the EU
population is being prevented from having access to
a job with a high salary. The fact that the EU
population lacks of digital skills, raises the
opportunity to develop a platform for digital skills
learning. While there are many digital skills
platforms (e.g. Coursera) that you can use free, the
majority of them use a mass teaching method. The
space for customized teaching services is limited
because the purpose of those platforms is to offer
digital skills to as many learners as possible. The
platforms for customized learning services for
digital skills usually charge for their services, and
not all the potential students can afford this type of
learning. The aim of this paper is to set up the
conceptual design for a digital skills platform, which
offers a customized and affordable method of
learning.
2 The platform
Higher education is a sector where the digital skills
are being taught by the teaching staff including
lecturers, professors and guest tutors. Although this
seems to be the formal way of teaching, several
issues arise and prevent the students from learning
the digital skills. For instance, most of the lectures
are being delivered during times that the students
might not be available. On the contrary, a teaching
session on demand would be more attractive for the
WSEAS TRANSACTIONS on ADVANCES in ENGINEERING EDUCATION
DOI: 10.37394/232010.2022.19.15
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E-ISSN: 2224-3410
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students who have to work during their studies.
Usually, the problem is that the tutors do not have
available time for video recordings of their lectures
or the university does not fund this option. One
possible solution to solve the problem is to develop
a platform on which students with the appropriate
knowledge will teach each other digital skills.
Consequently, the official teaching staff of the
university will not participate in the teaching
process at all and the students will gain knowledge
and the desired experience of becoming virtual
lecturers! The platform’s users will be students from
the same university so that the platform’s system
can confirm their log in details from the registration
at the official system of the university. The users
will have the right to learn or teach, which assigns
them a role of “students lecturers” or “students
learners.” The student learners will have the right to
request a series of private lessons from the students
lecturers, upon registering on the platform’s system.
The capability of the students lecturers to teach a
course will derive from their performance in the real
university. As long as a student has passed a digital
skills course in the real academic program, then he
has the right to teach this course at the platform.
Regarding the infrastructure of the platform, we
believe that the students have to trust the platform
before using it. That is why the technology of the
platform should be a trustful one, which minimizes
the risk of unauthorized access from intruders. Our
suggestion regarding the development of this
platform is a secure technology with aspects that
will boost the intention to use the platform.
Thereupon, this paper discusses the design of a
blockchain platform with gamification features [4].
On technological level, the advantages of the
blockchain technology are many [5], [6]. First, this
is a decentralized technology [7], which means that
the technology is not managed by a central
authority. This is meaningful for the students
because they are free to develop a self-administered
platform without the consent of the university’s
authorities. Moreover, the blockchain technology
allows multiple stakeholders to collaborate on a
common project even if they do not trust each other
[8]. The implementation of a collaborative scenario
between entities that are probably unknown, poses
the risk of potential fraud during the transaction. In
this case, a technology such blockchain that offers a
secure method of transaction based on cryptography
[9], might be the best solution. This fact encourages
the collaboration between the students because it
reduces the risk of the invasion of privacy.
Apart from the used technology, it is crucial for
the long-term lifecycle of the platform the actual
participation of the users on the platform. The
engagement of the students with the operation of the
platform requires a suitable motivation schema. The
motivation for the providers of the teaching services
could be a financial or non-financial reward to keep
the stakeholders involved in the project. If the
reward is financial, then the “students learners” will
probably turn to the MOOCs (Massive open online
courses) because they are free and already popular
in the academic community [10]. Furthermore, the
financial reward is a challenge because there could
be lack of trust between the “students lecturers” and
the “students learners” regarding the quantity of the
financial reward, and the quality of the delivered
services (teaching services).
Consequently, we propose a non-financial
reward of reputation points with extended
advantages for the students lecturers. This is a
gamified method featuring elements that will affect
the intention of the students to use the platform [11].
Gamification is the use of game elements in a non-
gaming environment [12] and according to many
scholars, affects positively the intention to use a
new system [13], [14]. Examples of its use are
present in both public [15] and private sector,
several of the gamified elements that could be used
are:
• Leaderboard with rating for the best tutors of the
community.
• Special badges and reputation points as a digital
currency.
• Easter eggs that open virtual doors on the platform
for additional learning sessions.
• Reward of free courses to encourage the new users
to participate on the platform.
• Virtual battles between the most popular tutors to
gain more popularity between the learners.
• Cartoon characters that encourage the passive
users of the platform to become active by offering
teaching services.
For our platform, we are going to use reputation
points as a virtual currency and reward for the
teaching services. Depending on the amount of the
reputation points, the students lecturers will receive
virtual badges as a sign of achievement and
experience of becoming virtual lecturers. The most
active users with the most valuable actions will
receive a high amount of points. This number of
points will lead to the acquisition of defined badges.
In table 1, you can read the association between the
required actions, amount of reputation points and
the offered badges.
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Table 1. Actions and Reputation points earned
Actions
Reputation Points
Earned
User registration in the
system
20
Course registration in
the system
30
Teaching 1 course
50
Teaching 10 courses
600
Suggesting an idea for
the platform
1000
In table 2 you can read the types of badges and the
required reputation points.
Table 2. Badges and required Reputation points
system
Badges
Reputation Points
Required
Participant
1-50
Supporter
51-200
Junior Lecturer
201-400
Super Lecturer
401-1000
VIP Lecturer
1001-2000
Influencer
2001- 5000
As an extended advantage, the owners of the
academic badges could use them to benefit from
special advantages in the real university. For
instance, VIP lecturers will be preferred in MSc
and PhD studies in comparison with other
candidate students. Moreover, Influencers will
be preferred over other candidates for teaching
assistant positions in the real university. Except,
the students lecturers, the students learners will
benefit from the gamified blockchain platform
too. They will participate in a low risk
environment because they do not risk their
financial status and will learn new digital skills
as well. The synergy between blockchain and
gamification is going to create a platform that is
both secure and entertaining.
2.1 Smart contract’s design
For the design of the platform, we are going to use
Ethereum [16], which is a software that simulates
the building of a permissionless blockchain [17].
The main feature of the permisionless blockchain is
the fact that allows any user to read or write on the
system without a permission from a central
authority [18]. In our case, a choice for a public
blockchain seems a wise one because it will inspire
many students to participate in the network and will
boost its popularity. Ethereum includes the EVM
(Ethereum Virtual Machine) a decentralized
computing entity that is managed through the
creation of accounts. The students lecturers and
students learners will be externally owned accounts
(EOA) controlled by their private keys. Under this
condition, both lecturers and learners could remain
anonymous and become capable of sending
messages. Another type of account inside the system
is the contract type of account. This type of account
is an autonomous one, which is controlled by the
smart contract code and its scope is to create smart
contracts [19]. Most of the transactions and business
processes on this blockchain platform could be
developed as a series of smart contracts.
The structure of the smart contracts consists
of the initial set up of the nodes on the Ethereum,
the business services and the smart contract
functions [20]. The suggested nodes on Ethereum
are:
- The students lecturers that offer teaching services
and create the smart contract.
- The students learners who create their Ethereum
wallet to enjoy the learning services and gain access
at the blockchain nodes.
The business services of the learning platform will
be:
- User registration
- Course registration
- Course teaching
- Financial transaction (reputation points)
Based on the aim of its smart contract, the suggested
smart contract functions of the smart contract are:
- Contract creation: The lecturer creates the contract
by defining its terms and conditions, including the
course’s name and the lecturer/learner details.
- Contract starts: The learner signs the contract with
the obligation that will send the X amount of
reputation points to the lecturer.
- Smart contract: The system executes a code when
the lecture starts and sends the agreed amount of
reputation points to the lecturer.
- Contract ends: When the lecturer terminates the
contract, it means that he is no longer available to
deliver the rest of the lectures to the learner. In this
case, the learner receives back any deposit of
WSEAS TRANSACTIONS on ADVANCES in ENGINEERING EDUCATION
DOI: 10.37394/232010.2022.19.15
Vasileios Yfantis, Klimis Ntalianis
E-ISSN: 2224-3410
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Volume 19, 2022
reputation points. The whole architecture of the
platform is depicted in figure 1.
Fig. 1. The structure of the Blockchain teaching
platform.
According to our needs, there are three types of
smart contracts that could be used for the operation
of the platform:
1. User Registration Smart Contract
2. Course Registration Smart Contract
3. Course Teaching and Financial Transaction Smart
Contract.
User Registration Smart Contract: The new
users could be only students of the same university.
The authorities of the educational institute have
given the students a pair of public and private keys
to use it for registration on new courses and to sign
digitally their examination papers. The new users
register on the blockchain platform by using their
public keys, and the system either recognizes and
accept them on the platform as official students or
enables them to browse the platform as guests
without participating as lecturers or learners.
Course Registration Smart Contract: Any
registered student is able to update his courses
profile and add the courses that he/she is capable of
teaching. The new user adds courses to the profile
by using the public key, which was used during the
registration. Moreover, the same public key could
be used to register in the official courses of the
university. In this case, when the student has passed
a university course of a digital skill, the public key
that he used could be identified by the smart
contract. Consequently, if the student has passed the
university’s course, the platform identifies the
person and allows him to add the course on the
profile with the tag “verified”. Otherwise, the smart
contract rejects his application to add “verified”
courses and allows him to add the courses with the
tag “not verified”.
Course Teaching and Financial Transaction
Smart Contract: The users of the platform are able
to learn or teach a skill. When the user finds on the
platform a lecturer with the preferred available
courses, he can book a new learning session with
him depending upon his availability. The learner
uses his public key to be identified as a verified user
of the system and requests the teaching services
from the lecturer. If the lecturer agrees to the deal,
the smart contract arranges the transaction of the
reputation points between the learner and the
lecturer. The reward is an agreed amount of
reputation points that improve the lecturer’s
reputation status. The more badges acquired from
teaching services, the more popular students become
among the community and has access to special
benefits.
3 Conclusion
The scenario of a teaching platform, which is
managed by the students, is not far from the truth. In
special occasions, such the Covid-19 situation, the
status quo of reality is being dissolved, and the
communities have to redesign their activities. A
form of education, which is student orientated will,
possibly, persuade them to participate and adopt it
as long as the transparency of transactions will
prevail. Blockchain as a technology increases the
transparency and reduces the risk for potential
conflicts between non-trusted entities. Additionally,
gamification as a method of motivation to use the
system will trigger a boosted intention to use the
platform. The research challenge for the
improvement of the platform is an augmented
operation in collaboration with other communities.
For example, the ability of the students lecturers to
teach digital skills to people registered in other self-
administered blockchain platforms. This goal of this
action would require the development of a multi
chained blockchain and a large amount of
computing power for its processes.
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Contribution of individual authors to
the creation of a scientific article
(ghostwriting policy)
Vasileios Yfantis, carried out the design of the smart
contracts and the blockchain.
Klimis Ntalianis has authored the introduction part.
Sources of funding for research
presented in a scientific article or
scientific article itself
Report potential sources of funding if there is
any
WSEAS TRANSACTIONS on ADVANCES in ENGINEERING EDUCATION
DOI: 10.37394/232010.2022.19.15
Vasileios Yfantis, Klimis Ntalianis
E-ISSN: 2224-3410
145
Volume 19, 2022
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DOI: 10.37394/232010.2022.19.15
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E-ISSN: 2224-3410
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