QualiChain at the 9th eSTEeM conference

The 9th eSTEeM conference took place online on April 29-30, 2020. The conference is organised annually by the Open University, UK. Entitled “Informing Student Success – From Scholarship to Practice”, this year’s programme has been a mix of short orals, workshops and poster presentations, showcasing scholarship work conducted by STEM colleagues.

Alexander Mikroyannidis (The Open University, UK) represented QualiChain and delivered a hands-on workshop entitled “Decentralised Qualifications on the Blockchain”. The workshop explored the different ways that employability is affected by decentralisation. More specifically, the ways that education and employment qualifications can be awarded, managed and verified on the Blockchain were outlined, as well as how learners can receive personalised job or course recommendations based on the qualifications they have acquired. Participants have had the opportunity to try out and evaluate the tools offered by the QualiChain project for the award and verification of decentralised qualifications. The outcomes of this workshop will provide useful feedback for the QualiChain pilot conducted by the Open University.