Blockchain Ecosystem for Credit Transfer in Education

Data is the key to measuring educational effectiveness promptly. But data and education are trapped and siloed across centralized systems, causing information discrepancies and inaccuracies. This has caused countless delayed opportunities, academic credential disagreements, and never-ending confusion around learning potency. This lack of transparency, despite having its fair share of usefulness, has also been quite burdensome. To alleviate this issue, our team has developed a blockchain protocol that verifies professional certifications that have been earned both locally and through another well-established online educational portal. This system allows accuracy, reliability, and immutability that has never been implemented. This foundation of clear, verified data will then be used further to power blockchain-based applications. The result is that our attempt at a versatile, holistic, and decentralized view of educational performance ensures the best e-learning outcome for students and teachers alike.

ESTABLISHMENT AND OPERATION OF ACADEMIC BANK OF CREDITS (ABC) IN HIGHER EDUCATION

The NEP, 2020 reiterates the holistic and multidisciplinary education. Even engineering institutions, such as IITs, will move towards more holistic and multidisciplinary education with more arts and humanities. The Academic Bank of Credits (ABCs) shall be a national-level facility to promote flexibility of curriculum framework and interdisciplinary academic mobility of students across HEIs with appropriate credit transfer mechanism. It will enable the integration of multiple disciplines of higher learning, leading to the desired outcomes including enhanced creativity, innovation, higher order thinking and critical analysis. Academic Bank of Credits is essentially a credit-based, and highly flexible, student-centric facility. Students are eligible for Credit transfer, Credit accrual and Credit redemption through ABCs. The present article enlighten the readers with regard to Objectives of ABCs ; Functions of ABCs ; Organizational Structures of ABCs ; Implementation Plan for ABCs ; and Eligibility Criteria for HEIs to register with ABCs. The Regulations presented in this article are called as the University Grants Commission (Establishment and Operation of Academic Bank of Credits in Higher Education) Regulations, 2021 which will be implemented from the academic year 2021-22.

Prototype Development of a Cross-Institutional Credit Transfer Information System for Community College Transfer Students

Credit transfer information systems in higher education are not well studied. This article demonstrates the prototype development of a cross-institutional credit transfer information system (CICIS) for community college transfer (i.e., vertical transfer) students in an Asian educational context. It exhibits credit transfer guidelines and past credit transfer records to enhance the transparency and sustainability of credit transfer information and to facilitate the transfer process of prospective community college transfer students. It also ensures the sustainability of credit transfer information and its application. The four-phase life cycle of the prototyping model was adopted to guide the study. In this paper, we report the first three phases of this development: (1) Users’ needs assessment and pre-prototyping groundwork, (2) prototype development, and (3) unforeseen circumstances and expert review. Challenges and difficulties throughout the whole process are documented and discussed. Based on this prototype development experience, a solid foundation of strategies for future engineering and enhancement of credit transfer information systems can be developed.

Developing Guidelines for the Internationalisation of Education Programmes from Sojourners’ Experience using Merriam’s (2009) two-level Analysis.

This study was an impetus from the experiences of two Malaysian students who embarked on a credit transfer programme to Universitas Islam Negeri Walisongo, Indonesia. The programme was to uphold the Internationalisation of Education (ILe) as proposed by a public university in Malaysia. The aim of the study was to explicate the successes and challenges that the students had endeavoured during the programme for 6 months. The methods employed were document analysis and interview. The data were collected via learning journal entries which the students submitted through email to be compiled by the researchers as well as their final report which was submitted at the end of the programme. In order to triangulate the data, they were then interviewed once they came back to Malaysia. The data from both methods were analysed thematically following Merriam’s (2009) two-level analysis. Four themes emerged from the data – experiences, public relations, independence and communication skills. Each of the theme details both successes and challenges. These findings provide input for a draft of guidelines for any faculty or university to conduct a credit transfer programme in the future.

Industrial Mindset of Education in Merdeka Belajar Kampus Merdeka (MBKM) Policy

Merdeka Belajar Kampus Merdeka (MBKM) program is one of the distinguished programs issued by the Ministry of Education and Culture. It is expected that the university students enhance soft and hard skills by joining one of eight suggested programs. Link and match was an initial policy in the 1990s while the MBKM program is improved. The study aims to uncover the industrial interest embedded in MBKM policy by reviewing the concepts and educational design in Indonesia. Library research towards the ideas was reviewed. Reputable journals and books were collected and overviewed while the critical concept of education was carried out as a tool of analysis. The theory of education addressed by Illich (2000), Walker (1981), and Nabhani (2001) was employed to trace the Industrialization of education in MBKM policy. The study shows that the industrial factors in MBKM policy are highlighted and strengthened by giving students the right to take a program and doing a credit transfer at the end of the program. The university and study program curriculum is focused on the need for the business and industrial world.

Unpacking implementation capacity and contexts for degree reclamation strategies: What factors move the equity needle?

This paper used data from a multi-institutional study of community colleges developing and implementing degree reclamation strategies (adult reengagement and reverse credit transfer) to understand and unpack the factors that influence implementation and capacity development. The data come from seven colleges that are implementing equity-focused degree reclamation strategies aimed to reduce the population of “some college, no degree.” The research team used an interdisciplinary lens to identify these factors drawing from literature on capacity-building. Prior to the start of implementation, researchers surveyed institutions and institutional stakeholders to assess baseline capacity, and they tracked institutional participation and engagement in the strategy development and implementation process. This paper highlights findings from this research to identify which factors are most related to implementation variation and strategy outcomes.

The European Credit Transfer System (ECTS) from the perspective of Irish teacher educators

The European Credit Transfer System (ECTS), one of the main pillars of the Bologna Process, was heavily influenced by external forces such as internationalisation, globalisation and market values. It was also immune to national/regional policy influences and differences between academic disciplines. The authors investigated a) Irish teacher educators’ perceptions of the reasons for the introduction of the ECTS and b) the influence of the ECTS on teacher educators’ practice. A Qualtrics survey including both closed and open-ended questions was sent to all Irish teacher educators. Asked about the rationale for the introduction of the ECTS and about its influence on their professional work, these respondents rated and ranked the importance of student mobility and the transferability of their academic achievements ahead of teaching and learning aspects. These findings, which were confirmed by participants’ open-ended responses, are discussed from the following macro-contextual perspectives: inattention to general HE curriculum issues in an environment dominated by discipline-based silos; the limitations of top-down reform, particularly at the implementation stage; low ERASMUS participation rates of Irish student teachers; and the ECTS focus on skills, competences and pre-determined learning outcomes. The influence of these contextual factors is summarised in the conclusion, along with some implications for teacher education.