Education Architecture Special Interest Group Application

Owned by David Boswell
Last updated: Nov 25, 2019
5 min read

Note that this proposal for a group was accepted and the group's main pages are now at: https://wiki.hyperledger.org/EASIG/


Introduction

Education today is an experience that spans multiple, traditional education segments and that is lifelong and lifewide. Digital tools have enabled students to curate personalized learning paths based on their individual interests and needs, earning credentials, badges, and certifications from an increasingly diverse set of learning providers. These tools also have the potential to empower the most traditionally disadvantaged of students by giving them ownership of these achievements and the ability to display these as they pursue their goals in a changing workforce.

Hyperledger’s extensibility is an enabling technology tool that can form one part of the foundation of educational transformation. As an anchor of a student-centered record, it can integrate, extend, and enhance, existing institutional applications, processes, and workflows.

The Education Architecture Group will explore and advise on issues related to integration with legacy application infrastructure of learning management systems (LMS), Student Information Systems (SIS), Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP), Integrated Library Systems (ILS), Instructional Apps, Customer Relationship Management Systems (CRM), Human Capital Management (HCM), Cloud Computing models (SaaS, PaaS, IaaS, Hybrid), and self-sovereign digital identity. In addition, this group will investigate the integration of data across the multiple institutional, informal, and workplace learning experiences in the student’s lifetime of learning, and whether these can be integrated into a comprehensive record of an individual’s knowledge, skills, and ability.

Goals

The Hyperledger Education Architecture Special Interest Group are to:

  • Explore and showcase key educational use cases of blockchain
  • Foster collaborations between academic institutions, policymakers, vendors, and other education stakeholders
  • Create open-source, shareable assets to reduce barriers to entry and adoption for education stakeholders
  • Develop and promote the adoption of important interoperability standards in open APIs and protocols for education use cases, including from open standards bodies such as: IMS Global Learning Consortium, IEEE, W3C, PESC, etc.
  • Curate or develop professional development or technical assistance resources to support educational practitioners on approaches to applying blockchain technology across various educational use cases

In summary, this group is required because:

  • There is a growing interest in educational use cases for blockchains, but currently no hyperledger/blockchain-based community of interest (SIG) that focuses on assets for these stakeholders
  • There is an opportunity to capture and focus local, regional, and national Hyperledger and other blockchain initiatives at the intersection of education, employment, and workforce development
  • We can support educational institutions to make informed decisions on strategy and implementation of Hyperledger and other blockchain technologies
  • Promoting emerging standards are important to promote interoperability and cost savings across schools and systems, and to achieve long term policy goals
  • This group will foster an open ecosystem of educational providers, publishers, technology vendors, policymakers, and practitioners

Scope

In Scope

  • Identify key use educational applications for Hyperledger and other blockchain technologies
  • Showcase case studies and success stories
  • Promote open interoperability standards
  • Explore and advise on key strategies for Hyperledger integration to critical campus applications
  • Promote open standards for distributed and digital credentialing

Out of Scope

  • Classroom technology
  • Pedagogy
  • Curriculum

Work Products

Output assets from the Special Interest Group may include:

  • Use cases
  • Case studies and success stories
  • Best practices
  • Interoperability and compliance Assets 
  • Face-to-face events and meet-ups
  • Podcasts or other social media engagement 
  • Open-source software requirements 
  • Creation of a Hyperledger Labs project if the group produces any code

Working in an Open Community

Hyperledger SIGs are open and global communities where anyone from anywhere can and should be able to participate, contribute, and access tools and information.  For example, this means that even with meetings that are held via teleconference, we have to involve those not on the calls who are online. Best practice in an open and global community is to keep in mind time zone differences of the group participants and make sure to include non-meeting participants in group discussions and decisions by active use of the mailing list. All SIGs must adhere to the Hyperledger Code of Conduct and Anti-Trust Policy (see below) during meetings:

Anti-Trust Policy

Linux Foundation meetings involve participation by industry competitors, and it is the intention of the Linux Foundation to conduct all of its activities in accordance with applicable antitrust and competition laws. It is therefore extremely important that attendees adhere to meeting agendas, and be aware of, and not participate in, any activities that are prohibited under applicable US state, federal or foreign antitrust and competition laws.

Examples of types of actions that are prohibited at Linux Foundation meetings and in connection with Linux Foundation activities are described in the Linux Foundation Antitrust Policy available at http://www.linuxfoundation.org/antitrust-policy. If you have questions about these matters, please contact your company counsel, or if you are a member of the Linux Foundation, feel free to contact Andrew Updegrove of the firm of Gesmer Updegrove LLP, which provides legal counsel to the Linux Foundation.

Transparency

Meeting details, meeting notes, and documentation shall be made publicly available. The following items shall be generated and made available to the community after each meeting:

  • Wiki
  • Mailing list
  • Meeting recordings

Collaborators

The Education Architecture Special Interest Group is open to interested participants of all skill levels. In particular, this group will be comprised of institutional or individual participants across the education sector, including K12 school, districts, state entities, ministries of education and institutions of higher education. In addition, individual instructors, researchers, students, entrepreneurs, investors, technology vendors, practitioners, artists, librarians, corporations and policymakers are valuable participants.

The Education Architecture Special Interest Group will collaborate with other existing or future Hyperledger and other blockchain groups focused on Education and Training (curriculum focused).  The group will also collaborate with other Hyperledger groups as needed to address issues relating to interoperability and compliance assets.

The Education Architecture Special Interest Group will also collaborate and share community development and standards work in credentialing and interoperability with appropriate standards bodies and groups interested in (1) DIDs; (2) data security; and (3) privacy policy.  This includes groups working on DLT other than Hyperledger, such as Ethereum or other blockchains.

Other Industry Affiliations may include: We will reach out to other industry groups to determine their interest in participating.

Membership

Eligibility for Membership

AE-SIG membership shall be free and open to members of the community who have an interest in issues as they relate to the SIG topic technologies in general, and blockchain technologies in specific. SIG membership is established by subscription to the mailing list.

All participation in the groups activities is voluntary. It is perfectly fine to listen in to a group and do nothing. Of course active contribution is our goal, but it is not a requirement for membership. 

Anyone can propose agenda items, activities, and work products. In work products, the only requirement is there's enough buy-in from community members to want to volunteer to complete the product.

Participants

This list of interested parties has been moved to the group's wiki page as the EASIG Member page.

Participation in this Community

Individuals interested in participating in this community are encouraged to do the following:

  • Sign up for the Education Architecture SIG Group, which will allow members to
    • View the full history of the message board associated with the Education Architecture SIG
    • Participate in voting and polling activities
    • Control subscription to the Group, including signing up for email updates
    • Sign up for additional Groups associated with Hyperledger to follow along with the latest news

Leadership

Proposed Chair

The following individual has volunteered to serve as the initial interim Chair for the group: 

  • Feng Hou - Maryville University

Voting for the first chair and co-chair for the group began on November 20, 2019 and will conclude on November 25, 2019, and is controlled by David Boswell.