=Paper=
{{Paper
|id=Vol-2590/short20
|storemode=property
|title=The Main Aspects of Application of Blockchain Technology in the Educational Process
|pdfUrl=https://ceur-ws.org/Vol-2590/short20.pdf
|volume=Vol-2590
|authors=Dmitry Mouromtsev,Ilya Gosudarev,Stanislav Sivinskiy
|dblpUrl=https://dblp.org/rec/conf/micsecs/MouromtsevGS19
}}
==The Main Aspects of Application of Blockchain Technology in the Educational Process==
https://ceur-ws.org/Vol-2590/short20.pdf
The Main Aspects of Application of Blockchain
Technology in the Educational Process *
Dmitry Mouromtsev [0000-0002-0644-9242], Ilia Gosudarev [0000-0003-4236-5991], and
Stanislav Sivinskiy [0000-0003-4167-1081]
ITMO University, 49 Kronverksky Pr., 197101 St. Petersburg, Russia
d.muromtsev@gmail.com, goss@itmo.ru, stanislav_sivin@mail.ru
Abstract. The architecture of interaction organization between LMS and block-
chain technology is proposed in the article. The issue of identification of stu-
dents with the purpose of possibility of application of adaptive methods of
training is considered. Existing methods of authentication of listeners realized
in system Moodle are considered. The methods of increasing student identifica-
tion through the introduction of biometric algorithms are proposed. The existing
libraries of identification are considered and the module of recognition of the
user by means of a web camera (a laptop or a smartphone) is realized.
Keywords: LMS, Moodle, identification, authentication, private key, public
key, face recognition
1 Introduction
At the present stage, the development of information technology has led to the need to
store a large number of valuable information. It is often necessary to restrict access to
stored information only to a certain number of persons who have the necessary set of
input data to pass the authentication procedure. The requirement to restrict access to
information follows from the Federal law 152 "About a personal data» [1].
Of great importance is the need for authentication in learning management sys-
tems. The first prerequisite is the need to distinguish between the activities of the
teacher and the student at the LMS, as well as the possibility of encapsulating the
environment of students only the information space of the course and contacts with
the tutor of the course.
In accordance with GOST P53632-2009, authentication is a process of confirming
the claimed identity to ensure that the established identity of the user is correct [2].
The Moodle learning management system uses several authentication options,
among which we can highlight: authorization through login and password; authoriza-
tion based on a public-key.
* Copyright © 2019 for this paper by its authors. Use permitted under Creative Commons
License Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0).
2
2 Authorization through login and password
The simplest and most common authentication method is the login and password
authentication method. This method is widely used for authorization on many web-
sites.
Let's consider the implementation of this method in the distance learning environ-
ment. The Moodle database structure contains the table "mdl_user" (by default, the
prefix mdl_ is added during deployment). This table is one of a group of tables de-
scribing users and their profiles [3].
The key fields for authorization in the Moodle system are the "username" and
"password" fields.
It should be noted that in order to increase the security level of user passwords
storage, the final presentation of the password is saved in the form of an encrypted
string: "$2y$10$rloxabsylvwgEBIZoKXHju.YxRTQchKBUcIzKK1
VCn6mfppYRdk.C".
Starting with Moodle 2.5, the policy of using salt to encrypt passwords has
changed. If before version 2.5 salt was created once and applied to all passwords on
the web-site, it led to reducing of the level of security and its effectiveness, then since
version 2.5 Moodle relies on the possibility of bcrypt [4] programming language PHP
5.3.7 module and generates a salt randomly each time unique for a new password. If
we try to install Moodle version 2.5 or higher in an environment where the PHP lan-
guage version is lower than 5.3.7, the system will revert to the old password saving
method [5].
Let's consider in more detail the structure of the stored string:
$2y$ - identifier of the hash algorithm was used. In this case, the algorithm
(CRYPT_BLOWFISH) compatible with the crypt () function.
10$ - the required algorithmic complexity.
RlOXAbSYLVWGE-22 characters of salt
BIZoKXHju.YxRTQchKBUcIzKK1VCn6mfppYRdk.C – the hash of password
The disadvantage of this approach is the huge accumulation of different logins and
passwords for different web-sites and systems, as well as the need to fill out a user's
account with a name, e-mail, phone, address, etc. Combining OpenID[6] and
OAuth[7] allowed to solve this problem. An example is the registration of a user in
Google and the further possibility of authorization through Google on the web-sites.
Google in this case acts as a provider with OpenID service, and the implemented
OAuth mechanism acts as a tool for organizing authorization. Today, some software
developers for Moodle provide ready-made solutions for the organization of such
authorization through social networks [8].
3
3 Web services and authorization through a token
The LMS is available as web service starting with Moodle version 3+. By default,
only one service is available in the system "Moodle mobile web service". On the basis
of the use of all the functions provided by this service, the Moodle mobile application
functions [9].
Web services can be accessed via the following protocols: REST, SOAP, XML-
RPC. The most popular protocol is the REST protocol. The advantages of this proto-
col are performance and scalability.
Before users start using the protocol, they must activate it in the Moodle LMS set-
tings [10].
Next, they need to create a public key (token) by entering user data, selecting the
service and setting the token expiration date, after which the key will be considered
invalid.
The disadvantage of this approach is the constant need to notify users about the
change of the key, and if the key is compromised, the system becomes vulnerable.
When organizing distance learning, a number of issues arise, among which we can
highlight the issue of user identification, this issue becomes especially relevant when
we are implementing adaptive learning. And in terms of the possibility of transferring
the login and password or token to a third party, all efforts to adapt the level of com-
plexity of the task and build an individual educational trajectory become meaningless.
4 The problem of identifying the user
The organization of distance learning raises a number of issues, including the identifi-
cation of users and the problem of "cold start".
The problem of user identification becomes especially actual in the process of ap-
plying adaptive learning algorithms. Under the conditions of the existence of the pos-
sibility of transferring the login and password or token to a third party, all efforts to
adapt the level of complexity of the task and to build an individual educational trajec-
tory become senseless.
One of the most effective methods of user identification is biometric technology.
In comparison with access passwords, individual keys and cards, biometric identi-
fication has the following advantages: biometric characteristics are part of a person,
so they cannot be forgotten or lost; biometric identifier cannot be passed on to another
person; tampering with the "biometric key" is significantly hampered; contactless
biometric technologies have an increased ease of use.
Tools for recording physiological parameters (pulse meters, eye-tracker move-
ments and brain-neuro-interface activity) can provide fairly accurate results.
The most promising in this direction are the neuro-interfaces, which are systems
created to organize a protocol for data exchange between the brain and the computer
system. The fields of application of neuro-interfaces are very different from military
and medical to educational purposes [11,12]. The use of neuro-interfaces is based on
the process of registration of brain electrical activity (electroencephalogram (EEG)).
4
Examples of neuro-interfaces are: Muse (https://choosemuse.com/); EPOC+
(https://www.emotiv.com/epoc/); Neurochat (http://neurochat.pro/); MindWave
(https://store.neurosky.com/); FocusEdu (https://www.brainco.tech/).
Measuring the physiological parameters of the learner in the future will not only
help to identify the learner with sufficient accuracy [13], but will also help to solve
the problems of customization for individual cognitive style and provide appropriate
(relevant) cognitive load for each learner, allowing the transition from individualiza-
tion to adaptive e-learning.
The disadvantages of neuro-interfaces include a rather high cost of equipment,
which in the conditions of mass learning becomes inaccessible to most trainees, which
in turn makes it difficult to apply such technologies in the educational process.
Also among the existing methods of user identification is the ability to recognize
faces in real time using a web camera (laptop or smartphone) [14].
The authors of the article highlight two existing areas of facial recognition applica-
tions available to developers: Software as a Service (SaaS) and standalone libraries
for programming languages.
Let's consider the existing SaaS solutions for face recognition.
Kairos (https://www.kairos.com/) - the platform offers a wide range of solutions
for image recognition. API includes sex, age, emotional state, face recognition in
photos and videos and much more.
EyeRecognize Face Detection (https://rapidapi.com/eyerecognize/api/face-
detection-and-facial-features) - provides coordinates for all detected faces and associ-
ated features such as eyes, nose, mouth, skin color and hair color. Also under devel-
opment is the ability to assess gender, race and age.
BetaFace Face Recognition (https://www.betafaceapi.com/) - provides the ability
to detect, analyze, recognize and compare faces, create your own face databases or
use public databases. It supports gender, age, facial expression, ethnicity, adult con-
tent, 22 + 101 mimic reference points and more than 40 facial attributes.
The second area of facial recognition is the use of libraries in the development pro-
cess. In the field of development of facial recognition software in the JavaScript pro-
gramming language, the authors of the article highlighted the following libraries:
tracking.js (https://trackingjs.com/) - provides various algorithms and methods of
computer vision in a browser environment. Using modern HTML5 specifications, it is
able to track colors in real time, recognize faces, while having an intuitive interface.
face-api.js (https://github.com/justadudewhohacks/face-api.js/) - JavaScript library
implemented on the basis of tensorflow.js kernel providing facial recognition capa-
bilities. Provides the ability to run both on the client side, and based on the Node.JS
platform Face-Api.js supports the following basic features detect and recognize faces,
expressions, age, gender.
face-recognition.js (https://github.com/justadudewhohacks/face-recognition.js) is
a library for reliable face detection and recognition. The library is a wrapper over face
detection and recognition tools implemented in the dlib library written in C++.
5
5 Blockchain. Basic stages of development
A blockchain is a continuous and sequential chain of blocks built according to certain
rules. Relationship between blocks is provided not only by numbering, but also by the
fact that each block contains a hash sum of its own block and the previous one. The
hash function is formed by applying the Ethash algorithm (SHA-3) with submission
of block number, the value of the hash function of the previous block and the infor-
mation stored in the block. Thus, if you make changes in the information field of one
of the blocks, all subsequent blocks in the chain automatically become non-valid.
Blockchain as a technology has passed several stages of development.
The first stage is the release of the article "Bitcoin: A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash
System" on October 31, 2008 by Satoshi Nakamoto, who developed and released the
protocol of Bitcoin cryptovoltaics.
In the second stage of BitCoin development, the technology found its application
not only as a cryptovoltaic currency, but also as a means of reliable, decentralized and
invariable storage of user data. The most prominent projects of the blockchain tech-
nology at this stage are Ethereum, Hyperledger Fabric, Corda. The main innovation is
the ability to write smart-contracts (in the narrow sense of functions for data pro-
cessing). For the first time smart-contracts became widespread with the advent of
Ethereum in 2013 and further development of Vitaly Butlerov's idea about the possi-
bility of using block technology as a universal decentralized platform for the imple-
mentation of information storage and processing system.
The authors see the next stage of the blockchain technology development as an op-
portunity to solve the scalability problem. The essence of which is to limit the volume
of stored data in one block not more than one megabyte. In view of the peculiarities of
the blockchain architecture, which requires a constant transfer of data, such a solution
is logical in view of reducing the effectiveness of potential DDoS-attack. But due to
the increase in the number of network members and the volume of stored data, the
speed of processing requests and queues are forced to sink. Since 2017, active devel-
opment of possible solutions has been underway. Among which it is possible to allo-
cate: Segregated Witness (SegWit), Bitcoin Cash, SegWit2x.
6 Opportunities of blockchain in the educational process
The authors of the article see the possibility of the introduction of blockchain technol-
ogy, Ethereum, for example, [15] to model the interaction of teacher, students and
LMS (Moodle as an option).
The use of blockchain technology provides the possibility of reliable storage of
Moodle events without the possibility of their modification. In case of altering the
data in the Moodle database, the fact of alteration will be immediately visible, be-
cause the blockchain acts as a reference point for checking the correctness of the data
stored in the database.
With the ability to log the history of user interaction with the LMS in the form of
blocks and executing the chain of actions from the smart contract, it becomes impos-
6
sible to fake user activity. And at a certain level, it becomes possible to increase the
level of user authentication, by binding devices to LMS [16].
Let's consider an example of application of such interrelation on an example of
system of remote training of the educational office of Computer Design and Design
(design.ifmo.ru) at ITMO University: desginifmo.ru.
Base system of remote training is system Moodle of version 3.5. Using the built-in
possibility of logging the events taking place in the system (user authorization, view-
ing the course, viewing the task, sending a response, trying to perform a test), the
ReportAction plugin was developed with the support of the possibility of launching
the task in the scheduler via cron.php, in order to call a smart contract to record new
events taking place in the system.
An online wallet was used to include the user in the blockchain network in order to
store the private and public keys of listeners.
According to figure 1, the communication scheme of the modules and the process
of recording the response event are presented.
Fig. 1. Communication scheme of the main modules based on blockchain technology
In general, the recorded data in the blockchain is a JSON structure:
{time: 1579890444, user: "0xff2999f3335ea354906cd103eb5bdb3991e", re-
lateduser: "0xf83d4e53a82e3cdbc95c74d843d76dd46e963766", action: "send an-
swer", module_id: 68, level_credo: 0.57}
The identification module included in the scheme is another level of user identifi-
cation verification through biometric data. The module supports only face recognition
of listeners and recording of probability of matching in the level_credo variable. The
module's operation is based on face-api.js. The module developed today operates in
test mode and is of recommendatory character.
According to Table 1, experimental data obtained during testing of the developed
module are presented.
7
Table 1. Results of student recognition
Student Score (max = 1) Middle score (max = 1)
Student A 0.47 0.49
0.48
0.51
Student B 0.43 0.44
0.49
0.42
Student C 0.55 0.53
0.54
0.5
Student D 0.43 0.42
0.42
0.42
Several factors affect the success of the module: the quality of photos that are sub-
mitted to the input of the neural network as reference, the number of photos and dis-
playing various emotions.
Application of blockchain technology in combination with the module of identifi-
cation of students on the basis of biometric data allows to speak about the improve-
ment of the quality of interaction with students and provides an opportunity for a
favorable introduction of methods of adaptive learning in the educational process.
Due to the absence of strict formalization of data storage in the blockchain, this for-
mat of data storage opens the prospects of the evolutionary approach to the introduc-
tion of models of adaptive learning without correction and cardinal restructuring of
the system of data storage of students.
Also, the use of blockchain technology opens up the possibility to consider courses
with which users interact as independent participants in the process. In [17] it is stated
that the introduction of blockchain technology will solve the problem of "cold start"
in adaptive learning when the student moves from one educational organization to
another, due to the possibility of obtaining the entire chain of information through the
blockchain. In our opinion, the problem of comparing the correspondence of the edu-
cational information of the course with what is studied in the new educational organi-
zation remains. The main reason is an educational topic can be disclosed from differ-
ent points of view.
The solution of the problem is the need to look at the educational course as a full
participant in the learning process. Namely, the course must have opportunity to sign
in digital form its activities with users of the system.
7 Conclusions
Application of the block technology will allow to organize reliable and invariable data
storage and, due to the absence of a strictly limited data presentation scheme, creates
8
prerequisites for the development and implementation of new methods of adaptive
learning without changing existing developments.
Application of biometric identification methods allows increasing confidence in
the identity of the user and creates conditions for the correct application of adaptive
learning algorithms.
The innovation connected with the provision of the training course with the possi-
bility to sign the actions independently will allow transferring the course from one
system to another without losing the identification, since the number of the primary
key in the database becomes redundant. Also, by creating backups and logging
changes in the course, it will be possible to recreate the appearance of the course at
various stages of interaction with it in order to compare the course content of different
educational organizations.
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