Students from different departments have expressed their interest in cryptocurrency mainly because that’s what most employers are looking for these days. 47% of social science majors, for instance, wanted to learn about cryptocurrency, whereas 31% of engineering education majors expressed their interest in the same. This data was collected by a survey carried out by Coin base along with Curiously.
Cryptocurrency is digital money and uses encryption techniques to verify the transfer of funds. Block chain is the technology that has made cryptocurrency possible in the real world. Block chain is a record-keeping platform where the record can be anything like digital currency, information, professional or academic records. In education, block chain & Assignment help in the secure dissemination of academic records since 2015.
Rise of Crypto-related Courses in Higher Education
Coin base partnered with Curiously to conduct a survey on what students think about cryptocurrency and block chain. According to the survey, there has been a sharp rise in student’s interest in cryptocurrency and block chain related courses. 42% of the world’s best universities offer at least one course on cryptocurrency or block chain. The related findings are:
- David Yermack is the chair of the finance department at New York University Stern School of Business. He offered a course on blockchain and financial services in 2014 for the first time. Thirty-five students had signed up. However, the same course recorded over 230 students by spring 2018 with finance coursework help.
- Unlike the traditional record-keeping systems, block chain is based on a decentralize database where everybody is connected nobody owns it. One tiny change in any block would alert everyone in the chain, and hence it is impossible to hack such an intricately connected system.
- Yermack saidhe brought forth the class initially because of his interest in the subject. Soon, companies started preferring candidates who are familiar with cryptocurrency-related issues. Thus, now he considers these classes a necessity to help students prepare for jobs in the future.
- Cryptocurrency or blockchain has a strong potential to influence society across different sectors. Thus, you can have a major in social sciences or finance and anthropology and still be eligible for cryptocurrency-related courses.
Examples of Three Reputed Universities Offering Crypto-Courses
The survey showed us that 42% of universities offer a minimum of one class on cryptocurrency while 22% offer multiple classes. Here are examples of three renowned universities offering Crypto-Courses.
- Princeton Universities let students take a class based on information security. The topics in this class include cryptocurrencies, secure computing systems, blockchain and relevant legal, economic and ethical issues.
- The business course on the blockchain is quite popular as well. You get to learn about the security features of block chain along with its structure’s potential benefits and weaknesses.
- Cornell has the highest number of classes on cryptocurrency. The topics include cryptography, cryptocurrency, cryptocurrencies and smart contracts, introduction to blockchain, etc.
As you can see, the survey highlighted the universities offering at least one Crypto-Courses to help students learn the technical foundation for cryptocurrencies. Stanford, for example, launched the Center for Block chain Research to encourage students and faculty from different departments to get familiar with multiple aspects of block chain and cryptocurrencies.
It is pretty evident that classes related to cryptocurrencies and block chain are popular among renowned universities and students. This is because your employ ability chances increase if you have even the basic pieces of information about block chain or cryptocurrency. Also, these technologies have the potential to enhance the higher education system. Here’s how.
Four Major Ways Cryptocurrency/Block chain Improves Higher Education
In college, let’s assume, besides fetching good grades, you have also participated in competitions, provided assignment help to juniors, worked as an intern, enrolled in a short diploma course, etc. But, your academic record would only show the grades that are only a tiny part of what you have achieved throughout your academic life. You can’t let your hard work and accomplishments disappear into thin air. Can you? So, here comes the role of cryptocurrency or blockchain in higher education.
- Student identity and records
The traditional record-keeping system at colleges and universities only show the grades you achieved during your academic year. What about your competencies, talents and credentials? Isn’t it a bit unfair if your academic record didn’t show the internship program you worked so hard at? Learning isn’t limited to the four walls of your college anymore. You get to learn from other sources as well, which are outside of the classroom. Block chain technology, on the contrary, encapsulates your lifelong learning processes making you the owner of your data.
How does it work?
- Blockchain digitizes degrees, diplomas and certificates, thereby making your credentials digital. This technology places your information under your control. That means you don’t have to rely on an intermediary to verify your documents’ credibility and authenticity.
- Accreditation of educational institutions is a major pain in the head in many countries. But, blockchain technology eradicates this problem as well. It is easier and more convenient to verify the quality of institutes and qualifications of individuals before they are hired for teaching.
- In traditional academic records, you aren’t allowed to modify any credentials. However, in blockchain, you are the owner of your digital academic transcript. You have all the right to add credentials like internships, non-credit courses, etc.
Whether you have done rate my paper at a competition or achieved an award for an essay titled ‘buy homework: pros and cons’, you can add it to your academic transcript. MIT, along with Learning Machine, developed an open standard for verifiable digital records.
- Digital privacy and copyright issues
Plagiarism is a serious concern not only among students and teachers but also writers and researchers. Let’s say you have worked to publish a research paper. But, even after it is published, you find people using your hard work to achieve their objectives without giving you the due credit. Block chain lets you avoid such scams by protecting your digital content.
Block chain lets you manage, share and protect your digital content. Thus, it is especially effective for professors and researchers. They can create intellectual property, share it with peers online without letting anybody violate the property’s copyright laws.
- Seamless payments
Processing student payments is not an easy feat. Let’s say you are an international student. In that case, chances are your parents may have to spend big fees on sending money to you. The entire process involves too many people such as financial institutions, educational institutions, scholarship-granting agencies, parents, students etc. Block chain makes this process 10X easier. You can store your own cryptocurrency funds, which you can use to pay for your higher education fees.
Not all educational institutions have embraced the idea of crypto as payment. But, there are still exceptions here. King’s Cross in New York City, for instance, was the first university that accepted cryptocurrency as fees. Thus, this university could successfully get rid of any hidden fees, thereby maintaining 100% transparency with students & parents.
- Lower student debt
Educators often argue that education isn’t business and shouldn’t be treated like one. But, companies such as McGraw-Hill and Pearson make millions by offering additional teacher training, classroom content, etc., to students. The average fees and tuition at private universities increased by 179% from 1995 to 2015. In fact, almost 44 million Americans owe $1.3 trillion in student loans.
The Institute for Blockchain Studies’ founder, Melanie Swan, is looking forward to block chain to reducing student debt to a considerable extent. Melanie has been working on blockchain models that focus on three main elements:
- Reliable proof of trust mechanism that can confirm that the students completed the lessons, passed the test and also mastered the material.
- An easy payment mechanism
- Smart contracts to design individual learning plans
Still, sounds confusing?
Here’s an example to make this simpler for you.
Let’s assume you are an international student in the United Kingdom and you have qualified for scholarship funding every week. The scholarship funding requires you to submit your class test scores every week. You get the funding if the scores reach or exceed the minimum grading criteria. Now this entire process can be automated by blockchain. This technology can confirm your identity and grades before disbursing the funds automatically every week.
Wrapping Up,
Blockchain or cryptocurrency has the potential to change the way universities or colleges prepare lesson plans or accept tuition fees. The record-keeping platform, block chain stores, manages and protects your digital content on a decentralized database. The digital content can be your academic transcripts, skills, achievements, etc. Thus, you can be the owner of your academic records and reserve the right to change the credentials at your convenience. No wonder students are now more interested than ever to enroll in a class that explains the basics of cryptocurrency or block chain.
Author Bio:
Julie McGuire is a web developer at a reputed firm in the UK. She also provides assignment help at MyAssignmenthelp.com. Julie loves to paint in her free time.
