Blockchain-based Services for Sharing Education Records in Industrial IoT Environment

Abstract

The path towards Industry 4.0 have pushed the workforce to continuously develop their skills to stay at the forefront of their careers and remain attractive to their employers. In this case, the electronic portfolio is designed as a promising tool for professionals and employers, in assessing and presenting guidance for further learning in the workplace environment. However, the implementation of electronic portfolios faces huge challenges, especially due to the lack of interoperability to collect and share competition evidence among multiple organizations and institutions. The growing trend of professional (learning) interoperability has brought other challenges that must be addressed in order to fully utilize the potential of the electronic product portfolio in the context of the fourth industry. This article proposes a framework taking the benefits of blockchain, decentralized storage systems, smart contracts and session management in achieving professional-centric interoperability while creating electronic portfolio and share evidences among multiple organizations without giving up the confidentiality, integrity and availability of shared evidence. The simulation of the proposed model for proof of concept on Ethereum proved its viability in real world practice. In expansion, the assessment of the proposed model proved its effectiveness in terms of cost, storage space and security as a possible solution in electronic portfolios implementation and assisting professionals to stay competitive in global labor market.