# Blockchain-Based Quality Assurance System for Academic Programs
## 3 The Proposed Blockchain-Based QAS
### Organizational Structure of Quality Assurance Ecosystem  
This section aims to provide a comprehensive understanding of the proposed quality assurance ecosystem based on blockchain technology. Figure 2 illustrates the organizational structure that defines the roles and responsibilities of users in the ecosystem.  
Figure 1: High-level description of proposed blockchain-based quality assurance ecosystem.  
The accreditation authority is at the top level of the hierarchy and has the highest level of authority. Authorized members of a specific accreditation authority can access quality reports from all academic institutions and programs that are accredited by the authority or seeking its accreditation. Additionally, the accreditation authority can access evaluation reports submitted by its review panel. One critical responsibility of the accreditation authority is to register the official email addresses of all users in the review panels and HEIs (higher education institutions), represented by the deanship of quality that belongs to them. The developers of the blockchain-based ecosystem must register official email addresses for well-known accreditation authorities worldwide. In the future, a new accreditation authority can be registered and approved by an existing authority.  
The next level in the organizational structure's hierarchy is the deanship of quality in HEIs. The quality deanship in a particular university can access and approve all quality reports submitted by colleges within the university and the independent reviewers assigned by the deanship of quality. Authorized users' email addresses should be registered in the blockchain-based ecosystem by the deanship of quality in each university.  
The college council is the next level in the hierarchy. Similar to the previous levels, the college council can access and approve quality reports submitted by college members and is responsible for registering email addresses for all department councils and college quality unit users.  
At the bottom of the hierarchy is the department council, which can access and approve reports submitted by all quality committee members, faculty, and advisory committees within the department. The department council is responsible for registering email addresses for the department's users.  
It is evident from the organizational structure of the proposed ecosystem that there are several cascading levels of authorities, and each level can observe and register users in the next level of the organizational structure.  
Table 1 outlines the roles and permissions for different users within the ecosystem based on blockchain technology. Instructors are authorized to create, edit, view, approve,  
Figure 2: Organizational structure of quality assurance ecosystem.  
and comment on their course reports. However, other parties within the ecosystem can only view, comment on, or approve the reports submitted by instructors.  
In the case of quality reports, such as APRs, survey reports, learning outcome assessment (LO) reports, KPI analyses, and others, quality committee members within the department have the right to create, edit, view, approve, and comment on them. Other parties in the ecosystem can also view, comment on, or approve the reports, but they cannot create them, as it is the responsibility of the quality committee members in the department. Faculty members can only view the quality reports that have been approved by the department council.  
Regarding user management permissions, department and college councils, deanships of quality representatives, and accreditation authorities are authorized to register and cancel user registrations.