Designing a Learning History Storing Framework with Blockchain Technology for Against Multi Hazards

Abstract

On February 24, 2022, Russian forces began their invasion of Ukraine. As of May 2023, approximately 20% of Ukraine has been occupied by Russia, and the war is still ongoing. Conflicts and wars devastate many buildings, infrastructure, regional transportation networks, and telecommunications networks. The outbreak of war threatens the very existence of not only the occupied territories but also the nation itself. Obviously, this has a major impact on the continuity of social life itself.On January 30, 2020, the World Health Organization declared COVID-19 a Public Health Emergency of International Concern. This declaration remained in effect until its termination on May 5, 2023. During this period, the pandemic caused global logistical outages and disrupted human interaction. The outbreak of infection caused by the pandemic restricted the ability of people to meet or talk directly with each other.Extreme weather events caused by climate change are becoming more frequent and more damaging every year. In July 2022, temperatures exceeding 40°C were observed in eastern England for the first time in recorded history. Abnormally high temperatures caused by heat waves lead to major fires in the region. The largest wildfire in southwestern France burned more than 19,000 hectares of land. It is reported that more than 34,000 residents were evacuated.Whatever the cause, natural disasters or conflicts, they generally have a significant impact on the lives of citizens and social activities. The impacts are long-lasting. Depending on the type of disaster, the disaster recovery frameworks that have been effective in the past may not work in some situations.In the field of higher education, such as university education, the use of learning analysis, which aims to clarify learners' learning behavior based on their learning history, is being actively pursued. Learning histories are stored in public clouds such as Amazon Web Services and Google Cloud Platform, and are protected by the large-scale disaster recovery mechanism of cloud storage. However, the outbreak of war or regional conflict, or the occurrence of a disaster that threatens the survival of a country itself, makes it difficult to provide public cloud services, which are merely private commercial services. We must ensure that the learning history of learners, which cannot be recovered once it is lost, is stored and maintained even in multi-hazard situations.In this study, we construct a learning history storing framework that applies blockchain technology in order to store and maintain learners' learning history even in multi-hazard situations. By applying the decentralized and autonomous nature of blockchain technology, the learning history can be maintained and restored even in the event of a functional failure or data loss of information communication networks or data centers due to a disaster. In this presentation, we describe the design of a blockchain mechanism for learning history retention and describe a learning history retention mechanism linked to an existing Learning Management System. The design and effectiveness of the prototype system implemented for validation are also described.

Keywords: disaster recovery, blockchain, e-learning, learning record store

DOI: 10.54941/ahfe1004304