How Web3 Will Support Community and Credentials In Higher Ed

The two most promising web3 use cases in higher education

It’s always interesting to consider the Gartner hype cycle graph when looking at a new technology.

Around web3, we may be riding up the expectations portion of the hype cycle graph. It’s tempting to believe that this technology will change everything.

While we should be careful of inflated expectations around a new technology, there are two interesting applications of web3 in the education space that are already seeing real-world use cases: DAOs and crypto credentials.

I found these interesting because the applications address two fundamental education issues: community and credentials.

Community → DAOs

The MOOC hype cycle taught us that learning cannot be done alone. Community and education are intertwined.

Cohort-based courses, bootcamps, and the online learning revolution that began at the start of COVID showed us that community drives learning.

I write in When Online Education Works that technology can improve the education experience, but for an online education experience to work, it must prioritize the people.

DAOs offer another tool to facilitate and organize communities to learn together. They can increase incentives to learn and participate, organize the community through ownership and voting, and give the community a way to raise capital.

Blockchain@Columbia's Lion DAO provides the use case to show us that this is possible.

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Credential → Crypto Credential

The second problem with non-traditional education are credentials. Traditional education uses degrees as an effective credential. Everyone knows the value of a Harvard degree.

However, new forms of education have moved away from the traditional credential and sought outcomes and experiences over degrees. Bootcamps like Lambda School don't require payment until you've landed a job. Cohort-based courses rely on delivering a transformational learning experience.

Crypto credentials will provide new ways to work around traditional education's degree credential. With "proof-of-work" and task completion tracked through tokens, students' wallets become another way to demonstrate their credentials in the marketplace.

We've seen with Rabbithole that this is possible.

In summary, web3 will change how we use the internet. It's difficult to say where we are in the hype cycle, but education could benefit from further exploring DAOs and crypto credentials to enhance the education experience.