From digital tokens to play-to-earn games, blockchain technology has disrupted several industries. Today, it is entering the education sector.
From cross-border payments to synthetic assets, distributed blockchain ledgers and their tokenization utilities have created powerful financial products that are globally accessible.
While blockchain is democratizing finance, its usability doesn’t have to be limited to cryptocurrencies. Another industry that carries equal weightage as finance and needs an immediate restructuring is education.
The current system doesn’t cater to all students equitably. Some have more access to higher-level education, while others struggle to get the bare minimum, which was primarily observed during the pandemic.
So to make sure such disparity never occurs again and all learners have access to top-notch education, there has to be a solution fundamentally changing the education system from the inside out, and many believe blockchain technology powering the metaverse is the way to go.
Blockchains Can Make Structural Changes to Education
The distributed ledger technology can significantly impact how teachers and students interact and how academic documentation is done.
Educators can program lessons and curriculums onto a blockchain by leveraging smart contracts. Furthermore, smart contracts can distribute academic credits to students upon completing all course modules.
Aside from automation, blockchains excel at rights management and privacy protection. As a result, researchers attempting to publish their papers can retain full ownership of their work while avoiding traditional publication procedures.
For educational institutions, blockchains reduce the burden of file storage and document verification. Currently, most institutions use centralized cloud servers to store student data, making them vulnerable to single-point failures. To overcome this, institutions need decentralized file storage systems. They ensure data is secure and that no third party can alter student records. Moreover, it costs considerably less compared to cloud storage.
Education Meets Metaverse For Immersive Learning Experiences
While blockchains vastly improve the efficiency and security of business and academic processes within education systems, it alone doesn’t address the main problem: student engagement.
Since the pandemic, the new normal for students has been online learning. Although online tools have made education more accessible, they still lack the ability to provide immersive learning experiences.
This is where metaverses step up to the plate. Blockchain-powered metaverses can transform online learning environments into virtual spaces with enhanced social interaction and gamified learning techniques.
While education in the metaverse is a fairly new concept, there are projects like Edverse making headway. Edverse is creating the most immersive and insightful education metaverse on blockchain by bringing teachers, learners, promoters, creators, and institutions together.
Edverse also values gamified learning. They are introducing tokens and NFTs to incentivize all stakeholders for their contribution and participation. Similar to play-to-earn, Edverse incorporates learn-to-earn and wear-to-earn incentive models.
Educators can transform their learning modules into NFTs and sell/rent them on an open marketplace. And when learners complete these modules, they earn experience points which can be redeemed for $EDV tokens. Edverse is also suited for educational institutions or promoters. They can buy, create, and rent co-learning spaces to launch new custom courses and advertise on a global stage.
In addition to gamification, Edverse is raising the bar for global learning standards. It covers learning journeys from Kindergarten to Class 12, with a focus on skill empowerment, physical strengthening, and ancient sciences.
New Education Revolution Around the Corner?
Education is one of the largest industries in the world that is untapped technology-wise. Many online platforms and tools are improving the medium of learning at scale, but the experience remains old-school.
The use of blockchains can structurally change the way education is available to students and eliminate the issues in academic documentation and evaluation. Metaverses with blockchain solutions and advancements in VR/AR are needed to make that next jump in the digital-first world for the education sector. With increasing awareness and widespread acceptance, it is not too far stretched to see institutions and learners adopt blockchain in some capacity in the near future.