Recently, blockchain technology has gained considerable attention from researchers and practitioners. This is mainly due to its unique features including decentralization, security, reliability, and data integrity. Despite this growing interest, little is known about the current state of knowledge and practice regarding the use of blockchain technology in education. This article is a systematic review of research investigating blockchain-based educational applications. It focuses on three main themes: (1) educational applications that have been developed with blockchain technology, (2) benefits that blockchain technology could bring to education, and (3) challenges of adopting blockchain technology in education. A detailed results analysis of each theme was conducted as well as an intensive discussion based on the findings. This review also offers insight into other educational areas that could benefit from blockchain technology. Appl. Sci. 2019, 9, 2400 2 of 18 using it for the purpose of validating and sharing academic certificates and/or learning outcomes that their students have achieved [6] . However, researchers in the field believe that blockchain technology has much more to offer and can actually revolutionize the field. According to Nespor [7], blockchain could undercut the educational institutions' central role as certification agents and provide students with more learning opportunities. Although the volume of literature on the application of blockchain to education has been increasing in the last few years, it is still fragmented, and no systematic review has yet been conducted on the topic. Such a review is of great importance to provide a state-of-the-art overview of the topic and inform evidence-based practice. Thus, this paper makes an original and timely contribution to the literature of educational technology by investigating how blockchain technology is being utilized in education. Its primary target audience are managers, policy-makers, academics, and researchers with an interest in securing knowledge of this emerging technology and how it could have a profound impact on the education field. The remainder of the paper is structured as follows. Section 2 introduces the systematic review procedure that has been adopted in this study. Section 3 demonstrates the results of the review. Section 4 provides an in-depth analysis and discussion of the results. Section 5 highlights areas for future research. Section 6 discusses the limitations of this review. Lastly, Section 7 concludes the paper.
Alammary et al. REF provide a nice classification of the literature based on their category of applications.
Blockchain-Based Applications in Education: A Systematic Review
Applied Sciences
Engineering