Bitdegrees - The future for higher education?

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Explosions!

Love it or hate it, believe in it or distrust it, Bitcoin has disrupted the very platform on which modern economies are built - currency. This cryptocurrency with its non-traceable, outside of government control approach has rocked the financial world in recent years. Blamed for fundingillegal industries, banned by some countries while lauded by free market activists, and even adopted by some countries as their new currency, it hasn't gone away. If anything it has resulted in an explosion of cryptocurrencies with some seeing cryptocurrencies as the currency of the future. ​A similar situation currently exists in higher education.

Fiat Currency

Degrees are simply a fiat currency for trading (buying/selling) in the job market, just as money is a fiat system for trading good and services. Fiat money, like the dollar, is a currency without intrinsic value. It only has value because governments say it has value and attempt to maintain this perceived value by getting those who use it to agree to its value. However, if the value is questioned or another system arises, like Bitcoin, the fiat system is threatened.

In like manner, if people are prepared to use another fiat “currency” for trading employees in the job market, the original currency, the Degree could lose its value. In fact, the fiat value of degrees is even more astounding than fiat currencies. As Kevin Carey puts it, degrees “ are universally recognized and never expire” and they are “ golden keys to the parts of the labor market most worth entering.” A never expiring, valuable currency for buying entry to the job market - no wonder they continue to exist.

But, what gives a degree its value? There are a number of elements that contribute to the value of degrees.

• They are simple and internationally understood.
• They are supported, funded and endorsed by governments.
• Most importantly, they are accepted by employers as a proxy for knowledge and ability.

However, as Kevin Carey puts it, we don't buy drills we actually buy holes. It's not the degree that is important, it is what the degree says the holder is able to do. Yet ironically degrees provide little evidence of what students actually know or can do. In fact many organisations acknowledge this, and expect to put all new employees through their own induction training. The university of the 21st century in many ways is really the workplace. Organisations are buying drills that need to create holes knowing that that drill is the wrong size and will have to be re-engineered before it can work.

And so we have a higher education system that is propped up by governments,

• but is inaccessible to the vast majority - less than 10% in Sub-Saharan Africa go to university,
• has high dropout rates - 40% drop out in South African universities in the first year,
• has unacceptably high numbers of graduates not finding work - 34% in South Africa,
• and those who do finish and are employed are often not the “product” employers want.

It seems highly probable that education's Bitcoin moment is imminent.

Time for the Bitdegree?

What is needed to create a “Bitdegree” - a qualification “currency” that exists outside of traditional university structures, is internationally understood and accessible, and accepted by employers as evidence of knowledge and ability? One thing - employers who accept it as equivalent to a traditional qualification, just as merchants accept Bitcoins in place of Dollars. The next question then is what will cause this shift to take place?

Turning to Bitcoin, we see the following four catalysts for its creation:

• International - The need for a single currency that is accepted internationally
• Private - The need for a currency that is not controlled by governments
• Access - The need for more people, especially the “unbanked” to be able to become their own bank
• Technology - The facility to use technology to create, store and transfer currency in a new way

In the light of this let's consider the current catalysts for Bitdegrees:

• International - While degrees from A-list universities are internationally accepted, the vast majority are only locally recognised. As such there is a need for more access to “degrees” that are internationally accepted.
• Private - The value of degrees from non A-list universities is far from stable and is often linked to the political and economic conditions within countries. As such there is a need for “degrees” that are outside of the ravages of local economic and political conditions.
• Access - The vast majority cannot access even local universities either because of the cost or enrolment limits. As such there is a need for the “undegreed” to be given access to degree equivalent qualifications.
• Technology - For the first time in human history technology provides a way to not only share content everywhere, but also to give students real-time access to teaching.

What next?

The catalysts are in place, all that is now required are the following three elements to make the concept of "Bitdegrees" a reality:

• Content Providers - Quality, traditionally recognised (at least to begin) content providers need to make their content available for free to everyone. This has already begun. Many top universities have been making their content freely available online through platforms such as EdX, Udacity, MITx, etc. The content is in place and is growing rapidly.
• Curators - Unlike traditional degrees, the content in Bitdegrees will come from a range of providers and could vary in the number of units that have been completed. As such it will be important to have some form of curated content that is deemed to be a Bitdegree. It's here that new providers will enter the market who help students curate baskets of learning content, and additionally support their learning and credentialing journey.
• Credentialing - This is the key element, the fiat value imbued on the piece of paper that allows it to be used to “buy” entry into employment. Currently sites like Credly and Badgr provide credentialing services that trace learning outcomes across institutions and platforms, in a standardized, evidence-based way that is also open to public scrutiny. These sites belong to the Open Badges foundation that is attempting to provide a standard that describes a method for packaging information about accomplishments, embedding it into portable image files as a digital badge, and establishing an infrastructure for badge validation.

And so why haven't we seen the rise of a new form of higher education? Knowledge and power. Employers haven't yet officially endorsed alternative education as being equivalent knowledge to traditional education. Governments still want to control the knowledge economy and be its gatekeepers.

Thus, it's not surprising if we find new innovative education models coming up against legislation - just as cryptocurrencies have. However, these laws are likely to be as unsuccessful at stopping advancement as the Red Flag law was at stopping the rise of the modern motor vehicle - a law that required a person to walk in front of the car carrying a red flag so it didn't go faster than the horse and carriage. Not many horse and carriages around today!

Holes not drills

​Clark Kerr, the former University of California President stated that out of the 85 human institutions that have survived for the last 500 years, about 70 are universities. However, we now find ourselves at a pivotal point in the evolution of higher education. For the first time, these ancient bastions of knowledge are under threat by the very technologies their knowledge helped create.

The concept of a Bitdegree could represent more than simply the next iteration of higher education, it could represent a major leap forward in higher education. In addition to be recognised, the current core tenet of a degree, it could be universally accessible, economically and politically secure, independently verifiable, and most importantly, transparent. Employers will for the first time be able to see evidence of what the holder knows.

However, even if content is provided, the learning is curated and credentialed, these Bitdegrees only have value if organisations recognise their legitimacy. What will cause this tipping point is unknown, but what is clear is that the conditions are perfect for an inevitable change in higher education. And what may be even more surprising, when the Bitdegree becomes an accepted fiat for knowledge and ability, is that the drills will produce the holes employers bought them for with no need for re-engineering.