* [GATACA joins EU Commission’s Early Adopters Program as SSI provider in the Spanish group](https://gataca.io/insights/gataca-joins-the-european-commission-s-early-adopters-program-as-the-ssi-technology-provider-in-the-spanish-group)
> In Spain, three universities will pioneer the issuance of digital Academic Diplomas. The issuance will be performed 100% online, where students will authenticate themselves using a digital ID previously issued by FNMT (the Royal Mint of Spain) and stored in their mobile wallets.
* [RMIT future-proofs the university-to-student connection with verifiable credentials in Azure Active Directory](https://customers.microsoft.com/en-au/story/1481006006183422060-rmit-university-higher-education-azure-active-directory Azure AD, ION)
Many of the components we needed were readily available to us within the Microsoft suite. RMIT uses Azure AD today for student and staff login as an identity provider. ION is an open, permissionless Layer 2 network based on the purely deterministic Sidetree protocol based on open standards.
* [Blockchain and the future of Education](https://wellthatsinteresting.tech/blockchain-and-the-future-of-education/) WellThatsInteresting.tech
It highlights the [recent announcement from Digitary](https://www.digitary.net/myequals-1-million/) about having issued over four million digitally verified documents from 100+ institutions for millions of learners in 135 countries.
## Government
* [US Education Department promotes putting student records on blockchain](https://cointelegraph.com/news/us-education-department-promotes-putting-student-records-on-blockchain)
> The COVID-19 pandemic has exposed flaws across various sectors. As a result, a number of government departments are evaluating blockchain-based systems as possible solutions for challenges involving multiparty workflows, record-keeping, transparency and more.
>
> For example, the United States Department of Education recently provided funding for the launch of the “[Education Blockchain Initiative](https://www.acenet.edu/Research-Insights/Pages/Education-Blockchain-Initiative.aspx).” Referred to as the EBI, this project is led by the American Council on Education — an organization that helps the higher education community shape effective public policy — and is designed to identify ways that blockchain can improve data flow between academic institutions and potential employers.
## Paper
* [Blockchain, Self-Sovereign Identity and Digital Credentials: Promise Versus Praxis in Education](https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fbloc.2021.616779/full)Alex Grech, Ira Sood and Lluís Ariño
Although the blockchain has long been identified as an opportunity for driving much-needed change in the core processes of the education sector, use cases to date have been limited in scope and execution, with blockchain advocates and education policy makers seemingly disconnected on fundamental issues such as governance, self-sovereignty, interoperability, choice of blockchain platforms and overall trust in standards and the integrity of the infrastructure.
* [Blockchain in the Education Sector](https://potech.global/assets/pdfs/Potech-Labs-White%20Paper_Blockchain-in-the-Education-Sector.pdf)
> Since most of the educational institutes were facing security crises, new challenges are added to the security system to identify and manage the users’ access to these platforms.The most relevant challenges include but not limited to, legacy identity infrastructure, student lifecycle and users access complexity and new cyber threats.
* [The digital transformation of the education sector](https://www.validatedid.com/post-en/the-digital-transformation-of-the-education-sector)ValidatedID
For schools and universities, adopting the electronic signature as a tool not only implies an improvement in the experience for students and employees, but it also means a great improvement in administrative processes.
* [Self-Sovereign Identity User Scenarios in the Educational Domain](https://er.educause.edu/articles/2022/4/self-sovereign-identity-user-scenarios-in-the-educational-domain)Educause Review
Due to the high level of international mobility in the academic sector, insular solutions relying on only one national type of government-issued digital ID card will be insufficient; instead, the officials at the federation need to decide which digital ID cards are valid to uniquely associate an individual with private cryptographic keys, similar to the way passports are acknowledged internationally
* [Lissi use cases: Education](https://lissi-id.medium.com/lissi-use-cases-education-c39908690300)
Upon successful graduation from a school or university, a certificate is issued as proof of the achievements. However, these are currently still only issued in paper form and therefore cannot be easily presented to third parties.
* [Self-Sovereign Identity User Scenarios in the Educational Domain](https://er.educause.edu/articles/2022/4/self-sovereign-identity-user-scenarios-in-the-educational-domain)EduCause
The model of self-sovereign identity offers tempting benefits as educational systems become increasingly global and as learning spans a lifetime.
* [Digital Credentials – the new student experience](https://condatis.com/webinars/webinar/digital-credentials/)Condatis
- The challenges universities are facing.
- Digital transcripts and credentials.
- How universities can support students beyond graduation.
- The benefits for universities, students, and employers.
Digital innovation has been front and centre in Higher Education since the pandemic. The challenges remain for universities supporting students now and for the future. With the help of Microsoft Azure AD Verifiable Credentials, universities can support student needs effective and innovative digital approach.
* [Blockchain and the future of education](https://wellthatsinteresting.tech/blockchain-and-the-future-of-education/)Well That’s Interesting
The user has one wallet where all their important documents are kept safe and secure. Since this wallet is a trusted source, when they share anything from it, it is trusted to be true and accurate without having to get another party involved.
* [The digital transformation of the education sector](https://www.validatedid.com/post-en/the-digital-transformation-of-the-education-sector)ValidatedID
The electronic signature improves the experience in education for students, teachers, parents, guardians and other school staff.
* [Self-Sovereign Identity User Scenarios in the Educational Domain Gerd Kortemeyer Educause](https://er.educause.edu/articles/2022/4/self-sovereign-identity-user-scenarios-in-the-educational-domain)
* [Super Skills, a mobile application use case for DIDs and VCs](https://medium.com/@ntonani/super-skills-a-mobile-application-use-case-for-dids-and-vcs-d174467ccf46)
Beyond directly helping children learn in playful ways, this partnership was forged to assist in championing the importance of three learning primitives of tomorrow’s educational landscape: decentralized identifiers (DIDs), verifiable credentials (VCs), and digital wallets.
* [LEGO & Learning Economy: Gearing up with Super Skills](https://blog.identity.foundation/lego-super-skills/)ID Foundation
> The Super Skills app combines a custodial wallet (Torus) and Ceramic VC/storage tooling to give children private, exportable, future-proof achievement records – a self-sovereign educational credentialing system in miniature.
* [When Job Candidates Lie, New Tech From ZippedScript And LearnCard Will Help You Catch Them](https://www.forbes.com/sites/zengernews/2022/09/16/when-job-candidates-lie-new-tech-from-zippedscript-and-learncard-will-help-you-catch-them/?sh=731b54b63ed4)Forbes 2022-09-16
This pilot allows university students to trade their academic records in a privacy-preserving way, and recruitment agencies to acquire this data and process it, keeping the student's privacy intact.
## Report
* [CONNECTED IMPACT Unlocking Education and Workforce Opportunity Through Blockchain](https://www.acenet.edu/Documents/ACE-Education-Blockchain-Initiative-Connected-Impact-June2020.pdf?fbclid=IwAR22cl_g-DzoZOEBStwKhrsuQpqqA66ZyZhKdd_4NmER2GyDMXbatuUsUuw)ACE
This report is the first phase of the Education Blockchain Initiative, funded by the U.S. Department of Education and managed by the American Council on Education (ACE). It summarizes an intensive research project to better understand the application of blockchain, a form of distributed ledger technology, to education. Its content is intended to inform policymakers, technology developers, education practitioners, and workforce entities about the state of and potential of interoperable digital credentials anchored on blockchains. This report also provides guidance to these stakeholders on the effective implementation of blockchain-based digital credentials infrastructure.
## Working group
* [Digital Identity in Education](https://www.thedinglegroup.com/blog/2020/10/4/digital-identity-in-education) Dingle Group
> September 28 the 14th [2020] [Vienna Digital Identity Meetup](https://www.meetup.com/Vienna-Digital-Identity-Meetup/) hosted [a focused session](https://vimeo.com/464715275) on digital identifiers and verifiable credentials in education. We have two great updates from Kim Hamilton Duffy (Architect Digital Credentials Consortium, Chair of the W3C CCG and Verifiable Credentials for Education Task Force) and Lluis Arińo (convenor of Diplomas Use Case at European Blockchain Service Infrastructure and CIO Rovira i Virgili University, Spain).
