Knowledge-Based Systems 265 (2023) 110238

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Knowledge-Based Systems
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/knosys

Blockchain-based micro-credentialing system in higher education

institutions: Systematic literature review
Hada A. Alsobhi a , Rayed A. Alakhtar a , Ayesha Ubaid a , Omar K. Hussain b ,
∗
Farookh Khadeer Hussain a ,
a
School of Computer Science , University of Technology Sydney, Sydney, 2007, NSW, Australia
b
School of Business, University of New South Wales, Sydney, 2052, NSW, Australia

article info a b s t r a c t

Article history: A micro-credential is a proof of the student's knowledge, skills, and experience that can be used
Received 10 October 2022 to progress towards a larger credential or degree that focuses on a particular field of study in the
Received in revised form 18 December 2022 shortest amount of time. Micro-credentials are a new area in the education sector that has expanded
Accepted 24 December 2022
significantly over recent years and have become a popular idea in the higher education sector. Since
Available online 31 January 2023
the Covid-19 pandemic, micro-credentials are the most recent innovation in online education, gaining
Keywords: traction in public and private universities throughout the world. This has resulted in many universities
Blockchain developing strategies to offer micro-credential-driven courses. Higher education institutions (HEIs)
Micro-credentials need to validate micro-credentials, but the validation is a long-drawn-out and cumbersome process,
Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) so blockchain technology can be used to easily validate the detailed information on each students’
Privacy-preserving micro-credentials. Unfortunately, to date, only scant scholarly research has been conducted on
Learning recommendations blockchain-based micro-credentialing systems in HEIs. This study provides a detailed overview of the
Multi-criteria decision
state-of-the-art in the field of managing micro-credentials using blockchain technology. We start by
outlining the various requirements that need to be met in a blockchain-based micro-credentialing
system. We then use a systematic literature review (SLR) to retrieve relevant studies published
between 2016–2022 and compare them to the defined requirements. We also analyse the relevant
studies to determine the research gaps. This review will offer insight into micro-credentialing systems
that have been proposed for HEIs over recent years.
© 2022 Published by Elsevier B.V.

1. Introduction store sensitive information such as students’ education records,

The widespread use of technology in educational institutions
has given students unprecedented access to learning opportuni-
ties. Higher education institutions (HEIs) offer both formal and
non-formal courses either fully or partially online in which stu-
dents from all over the world may enrol. The COVID-19 pandemic
had a considerable impact on the education system both locally
and globally and highlighted the need for investment in lifelong
learning opportunities [1]. Due to the widespread usage of e-
learning platforms during the pandemic, university students are
more prepared for online study than they were prior to the
pandemic [1]. Most educational tasks can be finished online, so
students are not required to be present or to complete their
coursework on campus to receive a degree.
Today, most HEIs use e-learning platforms as their main de-
livery method for teaching and learning. These platforms also
∗ Corresponding author.
E-mail addresses: farookh.hussain@uts.edu.au,
hada.alsobhi@student.uts.edu.au (F.K. Hussain).
including their personal information and academic records. Prob-
lems with traditional e-learning platforms arise if they are not
secure, which means they can be accessed by an unauthorized
person [2]. In these cases, data which is stored on these plat-
forms is not secure and could be prone to tampering, fraud, and
privacy breaches. In 2020, the records of 20,000 students at Sias
University in Zhengzhou were leaked [3], and in 2022, the con-
tact details of 47,000 students at Deakin University in Australia,
including student ID, name, phone number, and email address
were hacked [4]. Standard databases are controlled by a third-
party provider which means students need a third party to allow
them to access their digital academic records (certificates and
transcripts), and it is also difficult to share their academic records
between HEIs [2,5]. Therefore, there is a need to encrypt students’
records and to ensure that when these records are shared be-
tween education institutions, this is done in a privacy-preserving
manner.
The development of technology has resulted in the intro-
duction of new online learning opportunities where courses,

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.knosys.2022.110238
0950-7051/© 2022 Published by Elsevier B.V.
H.A. Alsobhi, R.A. Alakhtar, A. Ubaid et al.
certificates, degrees, learning recommendations, and more re-
cently, micro-credentials can be completed online. Recently, on-
line learning and the growth in popularity of micro-credentials
have altered teaching and learning practices. Decisions related
to continuous learning, such as whether to pursue higher edu-
cation and which specialization, course, or institution (univer-
sity/college) to select are critical decisions which will affect a
student's future [6]. There are many factors that can influence
students when they are choosing a specialization, institution and
course, such as course fees, duration, language and reputation,
etc. [7]. If a student chooses an inappropriate specialization or
course, this can have significant consequences for both students
and universities and can have a negative impact on students’
future careers [7]. According to the National Center for Education
Statistics (NCES), around 80% of university students decide to
change their specializations at least once during their study [8].
Consequently, students need help to make a proper decision re-
garding their area of interest (specialization). Recommendations,
such as the selection of course, degree, etc... may be provided
to the students as an action plan (learning plan). The action
plans can be generated by each HEI in response to the student's
requirements and a recommender system can assist in selecting
the right action plan. Recommender systems are used in the
education sector and other sectors such as health and tourism,
etc. to address similar issues [6].
1.1. Micro-credentials
Before 2020, micro-credentials were available in a variety of
forms, but their popularity grew as a result of the COVID-19
pandemic, which accelerated its implementation in many sec-
tors [9]. Micro-credentials, also known as digital badges, have
recently emerged as a way to verify the completion of shorter,
more specific learning courses that are not shown on academic
transcripts [10]. They can be combined so that students can
choose where to get their education and it allows them to acquire
a large base of micro-credentials with the aim of eventually
receiving a degree or diploma. Micro-credentials are beneficial
to both individuals and higher education providers because they
allow for the grouping of small learning attributes, such as soft
skills, competencies, and professional skills. This will help indi-
viduals develop their skills and experiences and provide them
with a pathway to higher education so they can participate in
continuous learning. They can upgrade their skills outside the
classroom by completing short courses that include specific skills.
Upon completion of a short course, students are awarded a hard-
copy certificate as proof of completion [11]. The problematic
issues associated with the hard-copy certificates is that they
involve a cumbersome provenance process associated with each
HEI, it is easy to fraudulently make changes to a hard-copy
certificate, it involves a lengthy and often cumbersome processes
to replace a hard-copy certificate in case of loss etc. [12,13]. In
order to facilitate community acceptance of earning online micro-
credentials, the creation of a trustworthy, secure, resilient, and
scalable strategy using blockchain technology is essential [1].
1.2. Blockchain-based micro-credentialing system
Blockchain technology is a distributed database that stores
transactions in sealed blocks and records them securely [5]. There
are several ways in which blockchain technology can revolution-
ize the education sector, such as offering the technological means
to decentralize online education and helping students maintain
their lifelong collection of micro-credentials that attests to their
academic accomplishments.
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Knowledge-Based Systems 265 (2023) 110238
Certificates that are created and saved in the blockchain au-
tomatically become immutable, and once data is written on the
ledger, it cannot be altered [14]. Blockchain is an ideal tech-
nology to implement with a micro-credentialing system, as it
creates an infrastructure for managing, storing, and document-
ing the details of micro-credentials [15]. Micro-credentials are a
useful tool for students to show both what they can do today
and their future potential, as blockchain technology can capture
and communicate the skills and knowledge a student has pre-
viously attained. Micro-credentials are permanently secured and
stored on a blockchain to guarantee that they cannot be changed.
Blockchain is a decentralized approach where each student is
given a reliable, unique, and persistent credentialing e-Portfolio
which also gives the students full administrative control and
authority over the credentials they have attained [16]. Further-
more, blockchain promises to permanently authenticate and store
micro-credentials while offering users full control and manage-
ment over their credentials It is impossible to hack blockchain
in the traditional sense because it is a distributed ledger that
has a high degree of security, so there is no possibility of micro-
credentials being forged [16].
Since blockchain research is advancing quickly, a better un-
derstanding of blockchain's applications in micro-credentialing
will contribute to the future improvement of micro-credentialing
systems. Blockchain technology has characteristics that are ad-
vantageous for micro-credentials as shown in Fig. 1. This tech-
nology helps to solve many associated problems in the process
of managing micro-credentials, which makes it a good fit to use
with micro-credentialing systems [2].
Therefore, blockchain technology can improve the privacy of
micro-credentials by providing anonymity. It uses a pseudonym
(public key) that is unrelated to a user's real identity so even if
the transaction is disclosed on the blockchain, the user’s identity
cannot be determined [17]. Moreover, as we previously men-
tioned, blockchain is a secure technology by an advanced level
of encryption, so it can prevent micro-credentials from being
forged [18]. Since micro-credentials are stored on blocks in the
blockchain ledger and each block is cryptographically linked to
the previous block, it is impossible to change or erase data once
it is written on the blockchain which improves also security
and stability [19]. As micro-credentials are stored permanently
on the blockchain, students can utilize them indefinitely which
enhances their longevity and durability [20]. Additionally, this
technology can ensure credibility, integrity, and reliability for
micro-credentials because all parties on the blockchain can trust
that all transactions presented to the ledger are trustworthy by
checking the credential timestamping [19]. Thus, students can
reliably share their micro-credentials and other parties can val-
idate the integrity of these micro-credentials on the blockchain
because every party can participate in the transaction, so this also
improves trust and transparency [20]. Blockchain also can help to
increase information availability for micro-credential recognition
and improve efficiency in micro-credentialing systems, also it has
the ability to verify every credential registered on the blockchain
to ensure the validity and security micro-credentials [2]. Fur-
thermore, while blockchain is a distributed database and several
copies of the ledger are stored on different computers, then the
blockchain is not managed by a central authority and it will give
students full access to their credentials on micro-credentialing
systems [16].
1.3. Blockchain-based micro-credentialing system hierarchical struc-
ture
A common design pattern for distributed system development
is the model-view-controller (MVC) architecture [21]. Based on
H.A. Alsobhi, R.A. Alakhtar, A. Ubaid et al.
Fig. 1. Benefits of blockchain for micro-credentials.
this architecture, a blockchain-based micro-credentialing system
consists of three layers, namely the view layer, the controller
layer, and the model layer as shown in Fig. 2. The view layer is the
UI (user interface) which shows the outputs to a user. The user
(student and higher education institution) can join the system
to interact with it and send a request via the view layer. Micro-
credentials are also transferred through this layer. The controller
layer is the link between the view and model layers. It receives
input from the user and converts it to queries for the model layer,
and it also controls how the data is displayed. This layer is also
carrying out customized activities, or it is as arrange of artificial
intelligent algorithms in the form of Smart Contracts, such as per-
sonalized recommendations to students, etc. The model layer is
the blockchain layer which is a distributed ledger to manage and
verify all the completed transactions of the data, including micro-
credentials and store them on blocks in a secure, trusted and
private ledger. This layer contains the data logic written in Smart
contract to simply manage, verify, and store micro-credentials on
the blockchain layer.
The primary contribution of this paper is to review the ex-
isting literature which has been published over the past six
years, from 2016 to 2022. The reason why we limit our research
to articles that were published in this 6-year period is that
blockchain applications and micro-credentials have only become
mainstream since 2016 [22]. This paper presents an innovative
and timely contribution to the literature on blockchain-based
micro-credentialing systems in the higher education sector. We
conduct an analysis and compare the existing literature against
the defined requirements to identify the research gaps and sug-
gest directions for future work. We then classify the systems
proposed in each of the reviewed studies into two groups, namely
IPMM (intelligent platforms for managing micro-credentials) and
PMM (platforms for managing micro-credentials).
IPMM is an AI-supported platform for managing micro-cred-
entials based on the content of the certificate, i.e., the topic un-
dertaken, the major undertaken, job prospects etc. It also includes
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Knowledge-Based Systems 265 (2023) 110238
personalized recommendations that use machine learning algo-
rithms to be able to carry out intelligent tasks such as providing
recommendations for courses, jobs or majors to students and
making predictions for students’ selections as well as storing and
managing micro-credentials. For example, Digital Brick is an in-
telligent platform for managing micro-credentials using artificial
intelligence methods to provide personalized recommendations
for course materials and learning paths for students [23].
On the other hand, PMM differs from IPMM as it is a platform
that does not use machine learning algorithms to carry out in-
telligence tasks and provide learning recommendations or make
predictions. This category of platform only offers a mechanism for
storing and managing micro-credentials. For example, EduCTX is
a platform for only managing and storing micro-credentials, but it
does not make recommendations or predictions for students [5].
The rest of this paper is structured as follows: Section 2
details the motivation of this paper. Section 3 presents the main
requirements that need to be taken into consideration to develop
a blockchain-based micro-credentialing system. Section 4 intro-
duces the SLR and discusses the process adopted to shortlist the
articles chosen for this SLR based on the inclusion and exclusion
criteria used for the search. Section 5 analyses the final 15 studies
which are divided into the two categories: IPMM (intelligent
platform for managing micro-credentials) and PMM (platform for
managing micro-credentials). Section 6 discusses the outstanding
issues in the existing studies against the requirements that are
defined in Section 2. Section 7 concludes the paper by summa-
rizing the research contributions and providing suggestions for
future work.
2. Motivation of the paper
According to a recent qualitative research study, there is now
a barrier to the wider adoption of blockchain due to the general
lack of awareness about employing blockchain technology in
H.A. Alsobhi, R.A. Alakhtar, A. Ubaid et al.
Fig. 2. Blockchain-based micro-credentialing system structure.
the context of micro-credentials [15]. Recently, the number of
studies on the application of micro-credentials on blockchain in
higher education have been increasing, but no systematic review
has been conducted on this subject. Furthermore, in the higher
education sector, there is lack of approaches and applications
for reliably managing micro-credentials [1]. HEIs are still in the
early phases of managing micro-credentials based on blockchain
technology [16].
There is a need for HEIs to develop an innovative, global,
and trustworthy approach for storing, managing, and sharing
micro-credentials. There is an urgent need for intelligent and
reliable approaches to securely store micro-credentials, to share
these micro-credentials with other stakeholders (such as but
not limited to HEIs) and to provide recommendations for learn-
ing pathways for students. Based on the micro-credentials that
have been stored on this platform and a student's learning pref-
erences, such as a particular degree, specialization, or course,
etc., a personalized learning plan can be generated by HEIs. The
need for such a personalized learning recommendations has been
pointed out by [7,8]. Managing, aggregating, sharing, preserv-
ing, and maintaining micro-credentials in a decentralized en-
vironment is crucial for both students and HEIs. Developing a
decentralized higher education micro-credential platform will
serve as a trustworthy and intelligent mechanism to manage
and store the user's accrued micro-credentials [19]. It is cru-
cial that this platform provides support to students by allowing
them to share micro-credentials in a privacy-aware manner [2].
Furthermore, the micro-credential platform should be able to
generate personalized recommendations for learning pathways
for the end-users.
Given the importance of using blockchain to manage micro-
credentials in HEIs and the challenge of developing a decentral-
ized micro-credential platform, previous studies have proposed
different credit platforms in the higher education sector, such
as [5,12,13]. However, their approaches do not focus on the pos-
sibility of the acquired micro-credentials being used to complete
a specific degree in the future with a suitable specialization. To
address this limitation and the issues presented in Section 1, we
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Knowledge-Based Systems 265 (2023) 110238
first need to identify the main requirements from the student's
perspective that need to be met in providing an optimal micro-
credential platform based on blockchain technology. The four
important requirements from the students’ perspectives for the
online micro-credential platform are identified in the following.
It should be able to:
(a) verify and share micro-credentials in a privacy-preserving
manner.
(b) enable students to access their micro-credentials anywhere
and at any time without a central authority.
(c) generate personalized learning recommendations as re-
quested for action plans (learning plan) and specializations (area
of study), based on the students’ micro-credentials.
(d) collect all provided action plans from multiple HEIs and
display them to the students in a single view to be able to select
a suitable one based on their preferences.
3. Key requirements for a blockchain-based micro-creden-
tialing system
This section discusses the main requirements from the end-
user's or student's perspective of the intelligent platform based
on blockchain for managing, verifying, storing, and sharing micro-
credentials. This includes not only the ability to securely manage
micro-credentials, but also to provide personalized learning rec-
ommendations for students according to their micro-credentials.
In addition, the need for an intelligent platform for managing
micro-credentials is to serve as a bridge between the students
and the HEIs, such as by providing support for students in their
learning journey with different ways to facilitate their learning
needs. These requirements of the intelligent platform will form
the basis of a comparison of the various articles examined in the
SLR.
3.1. Ability to manage micro-credentials based on an intelligent,
global, and trustworthy platform (Req: 1)
Blockchain technology provides a decentralized, distributed,
and secure environment to ensure security and privacy preserva-
tion [5]. Due to the cryptographic concepts applied, transactions
H.A. Alsobhi, R.A. Alakhtar, A. Ubaid et al.
and data are safe, omnipresent, and trustworthy. As previously
discussed in Section 1, blockchain provides many advantages for
micro-credentials, the most frequently mentioned being the abil-
ity to ensure trust between multiple parties during transactions
without the need for intermediaries, where trust is either non-
existent or unproven [20]. Since every node in the blockchain
has the same priority and can validate newly added transactions,
there is trust between unknown users. Consequently, any micro-
credential platform that has been developed based on blockchain
technology is a trustworthy platform.
On the other hand, to be an intelligent platform, the platform
must employ artificial intelligence (AI) techniques to improve its
operations and value to users. The combination of two of the most
popular technologies, blockchain and AI, has helped conceptual-
ize and more effectively use student data and has avoided issues
arising from a lack of security and forgeries of students’ records
and their educational achievements [24].
Moreover, to offer a globally efficient environment, the micro-
credential platform needs to be developed based on a distributed
public ledger technology to have a global unified viewpoint for
students and universities. As a result, the platform will be ubiq-
uitous everywhere in the world and easily accessible at any
time. This makes education flexible so that everyone can study
whenever and wherever they choose at their own speed [5].
These features are necessary for the micro-credential platform to
manage, store and share students’ micro-credentials in a decen-
tralized, trustworthy, intelligent, and global environment and will
benefit students and HEIs.
3.2. Ability to verify and share micro-credentials in a privacy-pre-
serving manner (Req: 2)
Using blockchain technology and cryptographic techniques to
create an immutable distributed ledger can ensure data-sharing
protection [25]. To ensure the security and privacy of student
identities and education records on the blockchain, there is a
need to provide pseudo-anonymity protections for the real iden-
tities of students on a platform. This also ensures that student
data is anonymously searchable, there is no an unauthorized ac-
cess when sharing micro-credential records with multiple higher
education institutions, and no any personal student data is dis-
closed [26]. Some students want to hide their identity from HEIs
during sharing their educational records, so the micro-credential
platform has to use pseudonyms to avoid linking transactions
to their real identity [26]. This ability to hide a student's real
identity is a very important requirement in preserving privacy on
the blockchain.
3.3. Ability to provide a proper specialization recommendation for
students (Req: 3)
A student's micro-credentials, learning achievements, experi-
ence, skills, and qualifications are stored on the credit platform as
a part of the student's personal portfolio [1]. HEIs has to access
and verify these on the blockchain with the student's permis-
sion. When students ask for help in choosing a specialization
that is compatible with their micro-credentials and achievements
to complete a particular degree, this platform has to suggest a
suitable specialization based on the verified micro-credentials.
The generation of specialization recommendations falls within
the purview of the IPMM category.
In the development of recommender systems, artificial intel-
ligence (AI) and machine learning techniques have been utilized
to increase the accuracy of predicting the recommendations [27].
Furthermore, the use of blockchain technology in recommender
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Knowledge-Based Systems 265 (2023) 110238
systems is a viable technique for ensuring data security, integrity,
privacy, and accessibility [28].
It is common for students to seek assistance in the selection of
an academic specialization during their studies at universities, so
the development of a recommender system would be beneficial
to help them in the subject selection process. Students often
require assistance in selecting specialities [6]. Therefore, devel-
oping an automated recommender system that can recommend
the most appropriate specialization for the students based on
their acquired education credentials is important to ensure the
students choose a suitable specialization in their career future.
3.4. Ability to view all offered action plans and help students in
selecting the suitable one based on multiple criteria (Req: 4)
Different HEIs offer students several action plans based on
their micro-credentials and academic achievements; hence it is
common for students to ask for help in making a decision as to
which action plan should be selected based on their preferred
parameters [29]. One of the difficult problems that students face
is selecting one appropriate action plan of the numerous offered
by HEIs. This can be due to the multiple underlying factors which
contribute to student decision making in relation to selecting
an action plan, such as duration, cost, location, language of the
course and etc. [30]. Selecting an appropriate action plan is cru-
cial for students in terms of their education and future career.
Consequently, selecting an action plan is a multi-criteria decision-
making problem that must be solved to assist the student in
making a decision about which action plan is suitable from a va-
riety of options depending on their desired criteria [29]. Filtering
these action plans according to students'preferred criteria and
recommending an appropriate action plan intelligently is falling
under the IPMM category, and it is considered an important
requirement in assisting students in the decision-making process.
In summary, there is a pressing need for further research on
approaches or frameworks for the end-to-end management of
micro-credentials. This includes the following:
1. The ability to securely store micro-credentials in a manner
that can be globally accessed by any relevant stakeholder,
such as students, HEIs, and employers.
2. The ability of the micro-credential student being able to
share their micro-credentials with others either for per-
sonal development or for career progression. The student
should have the ability to share their micro-credentials in
a privacy-aware manner.
3. The ability to intelligently generate recommendations for
personalized specialization for students (based on their
request).
4. The ability to intelligently filter action plans according to
the student specific criteria to recommend the suitable one.
All the student's acquired micro-credentials can be used to com-
plete a specific degree in the future with a suitable specialization
and action plan. Hence, when requested, there is a need to intel-
ligently recommend a proper specialization and action plan for
the student to complete a specific degree in the future.
The above requirements point to the need for an intelligent,
global and decentralized platform, offering students complete
control over their stored micro-credentials to view and share
them with other parties, such as universities, colleges, or compa-
nies. Furthermore, this platform can also be used by students in-
tending to further studying to generate recommendations for spe-
cializations. The students also will be able to select one suitable
action plan from a variety depending on their preferences.
H.A. Alsobhi, R.A. Alakhtar, A. Ubaid et al.
4. Systematic literature review
A systematic literature review (SLR) is a useful technique for
reviewing and analysing the previous works to gain a clear insight
into the management of micro-credentials. The main reasons for
using this approach are to find the research gaps, address the
research questions posed in the existing articles, and evaluate all
the available studies that have been published on this research
topic. A review is crucial to give a current overview of the subject
and to support evidence-based practice. To provide a thorough
evaluation of the literature on managing the micro-credentials
examined in scholarly journals and conference proceedings, our
research uses a pragmatic technique. Additionally, the articles
should focus specifically on blockchain-based micro-credentialing
systems in the higher education section as there are a lot of
studies that discuss the micro-credentials concept in general. In
this SLR, all the relevant studies were reviewed and critically
evaluated. The steps involved in conducting an SLR are as follows:
4.1. Step 1: Data source selection and search process
To extract the relevant articles, this stage involves identifying
the keywords, search terms, and data sources or databases that
can assist.
• The scientific online databases and the search engine plat-
form which were selected and used in this literature review
are as follows:
1. IEEE Xplore Digital Library (www.ieexplore.ieee.org/
Xplore).
2. Springer Link (https://link.springer.com)
3. ProQuest Science and Technology (www.proquest.co
m).
4. Elsevier ScienceDirect (www.sciencedirect.com).
5. Scopus (www.scopus.com/).
6. Web of Science (https://www.webofscience.com)
7. Google Scholar (https://scholar.google.com).
These carefully chosen electronic databases offer adequate
coverage of the literature pertinent to this SLR analysis.
Google Scholar is another well-known database which may
be able to identify more relevant papers than the other
scientific databases.
• The following search categories and keywords which were
used in this SLR to search for and identify the related arti-
cles:
1. Blockchain: distributed ledger.
2. Micro-credentials: digital credentials, digital badges,
micro-certification, micro-learning.
3. Higher Education: higher education institution, uni-
versity, college.
4. Blockchain-based micro-credentialing system.
We employed a search technique to create a database of
the literature to identify the most similar research. We
utilized a variety of search terms including ((‘‘blockchain’’
OR ‘‘distributed ledger’’) AND (‘‘micro-credentials’’ OR ‘‘mi-
cro credentials’’ OR ‘‘micro-credential’’ OR ‘‘micro creden-
tial’’ OR ‘‘digital credential’’ OR ‘‘digital credentials’’ OR
‘‘digital badges’’ OR ‘‘digital badge’’ OR ‘‘micro-certification’’
OR ‘‘micro certification’’ OR ‘‘micro-certifications’’ OR ‘‘micro
certifications’’ OR ‘‘micro-learning’’ OR ‘‘micro learning’’)
AND (‘‘higher education institutions’’ OR ‘‘university’’ OR
‘‘college’’)). Using Boolean ‘‘AND's’’ to combine the keywords
from different search categories and using Boolean ‘‘OR's’’
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Knowledge-Based Systems 265 (2023) 110238
when using many keywords from the same category. We
used a different query string for each database since each
defines its own search syntax and we retrieved 322 articles.
• The search period was between 2016–2022. We used the
search terms with each database to find relevant journal and
conference papers published during this period. the date of
the last search was December 2022.
4.2. Step 2: Inclusion and exclusion criteria
In this step, the 322 papers that were retrieved in the previous
step were evaluated in terms of the inclusion and exclusion
criteria to determine whether or not they will be included in the
SLR. To reduce the number of studies that were retrieved, we
applied inclusion and exclusion criteria to the search output of
the prior step. After removing irrelevant and duplicated studies,
177 papers were retrieved based on the inclusion and exclusion
filtration criteria as follows:
1. Inclusion Criteria:
• The study must discuss managing micro-credentials
for higher education students.
• The paper must be written in English language.
2. Exclusion Criteria:
• The paper that is a workshop paper, an article from
magazines or newspapers, a thesis, and a poster ses-
sion.
• The paper that is a duplicate article or a survey article.
4.3. Step 3: Study selection process
Four phases of filtration were followed in this step, as shown
in Table 1:
• The first stage was based on all the search terms, returning
322 articles from the online search. Of these, 107 were
retrieved from the six scientific databases, and 215 were re-
trieved from Google Scholar. The number of articles was re-
duced to 177 after the inclusion and exclusion criteria were
applied and the duplicate papers were removed. Therefore,
145 articles were removed from the selection process based
on the inclusion criteria.
• The second stage was based on the study's title, so after
screening the title, the number of the retrieved articles was
reduced to 80 and 97 studies were excluded. However, it is
challenging to make a decision to include or exclude a study
based only on the title, therefore, we implemented the third
stage.
• The third stage was based on each paper's abstract. After
carefully reading and assessing each of the 80 abstracts to
determine whether the study was relevant to this research,
the number of the articles was reduced to 48 and 32 papers
were excluded.
• The fourth stage involved reading and analysing the full
texts of the 48 articles to select the studies that were the
most relevant to this research, hence 30 studies were re-
moved. As we are only investigating studies that discuss
managing micro-credentials in higher education sector, 18
articles were selected for further analysis. Table 1 shows the
number of the articles that were retrieved at each filtration
stage.
H.A. Alsobhi, R.A. Alakhtar, A. Ubaid et al. Knowledge-Based Systems 265 (2023) 110238

Table 1
Number of papers selected at each stage.
Database Number of Number of Number of Final number
papers based papers based papers based of papers based
on keywords on titles on abstracts on full text
IEEE Xplore 10 8 6 5
Springer Link 43 7 5 1
ProQuest 37 6 3 1
ScienceDirect 4 2 1 1
Scopus 8 5 3 2
WOS 5 2 1 0
Google Scholar 215 50 29 8
Total 322 80 48 18

Table 2 according to its scope, topic area, paper type, study aims, author's
Assessment of the papers against the quality criteria questions. information, language, and the summary of its research questions
Research Paper Quality Assessment Questions and answers. After this analysis, all the data extracted from the
QA1 QA2 QA3 QA4 selected studies was synthesized, which allowed us to classify the
Arenas and Fernandez [31] Yes Yes Yes Yes final 15 studies into two categories (IPMM and PMM). As shown
Choi et al. [12] Yes Yes Yes Yes in Table 3, 11 studies did not use any intelligent techniques, so
Kishore et al. [13] Yes Yes Yes Yes
they were classified as PMM and 4 studies used intelligent tech-
Lim et al. [32] Yes Yes No Yes
Turkanović et al. [5] Yes Yes Yes Yes niques, so they were classified as IPMM. In the following section,
Mikroyannidis et al. [33] Yes Yes Yes Yes we summarize and discuss the shortlisted papers to provide a
Mikroyannidis et al. [14] Yes Yes Yes Yes summary for each study and identify limitations and issues later
Mikroyannidis et al. [34] Yes Yes Yes Yes in Section 6. Sub- Section 5.1 discusses the studies that fall into
Ghasia et al. [35] Yes No No Yes
Jirgensons and Kapenieks [11] Yes Yes No No
the IPMM category and Sub- Section 5.2 discusses the studies that
Chukowry et al. [2] Yes Yes Yes Yes fall into the PMM category.
Ahmat et al. [1] Yes No Yes No
Mainetti et al. [23] Yes Yes Yes Yes 5. Analysis of shortlisted papers in the IPMM and PMM cate-
Terzi et al. [18] Yes Yes Yes Yes
gories
Ghonim and Corpuz [36] Yes Yes Yes Yes
Kumaresh [37] Yes Yes Yes Yes
Srivastava et al. [38] Yes Yes Yes Yes 5.1. Intelligent platform for managing micro-credentials (IPMM)
Alam et al. [39] Yes Yes Yes No
As shown in Table 3, only four of the proposed micro-credential
platforms in the existing literature carry out intelligent tasks. In
4.4. Step 4: Quality assessment and data extraction and synthesis this study, we define an intelligent platform as any platform that
applies an artificial intelligent (AI) technique. Intelligent learning
In this step, each paper was evaluated to determine whether it platforms have many advantages for students, such as offering
satisfies the quality standards, and the 18 papers were analysed in personalized recommendations for a job or course, offering re-
detail to ensure that only the most relevant papers were included liable data about the students and their educational data, and
in this SLR. making appropriate recommendations for students during their
We defined some quality criteria and then critically evalu- education journey.
ated all 18 articles against the following four quality assessment Mikroyannidis et al. [34] applied smart blockchain badges to
criteria to make sure that the selection process was unbiased: enhance certification of data science by providing a powerful
framework built on blockchain. This system assists students who
QA1: Does the study deal with micro-credentials at the higher want to improve their careers in the field of data science by
education level? providing job recommendations that are compatible with their
skills and educational qualifications. A smart badge has dynamic
QA2: Does the study deal with blockchain technology? features that can be used to make recommendations for a job
or course. "The European Data Science Academy" project devel-
QA3: Does the study introduce a proper framework to address
oped an interactive dashboard to offer automated tools to build
its aim?
personalized learning pathways that help students reach their
QA4: Is the proposed methodology validated by proof of concept learning and career objectives [34]. Students who study a variety
or implementation? of data science disciplines can receive badges (micro-credentials)
by successfully finishing a course in its entirety or in part and
This SLR includes papers that have at least three ‘‘yes’’ answers these badges are recorded on the blockchain. When the students
to each of the four quality assessment criteria. Table 2 presents earn more badges, they begin to receive recommendations for the
the evaluation of the 18 papers based on the quality assessment most recent job openings that meet their qualifications. They also
criteria. The final set of included studies was selected based on receive recommendations for additional courses that can enable
the various evaluation criteria to ensure their relevance to this them to earn the additional experiences needed for a specific
research topic. Thus, if the study met these criteria, it was deemed job [34].
to be suitable for this SLR. As shown in Table 2, only 15 papers Moreover, they described a new ecosystem called a student-
met the criteria and were included in this SLR. Fig. 3 illustrates centred approach which puts students at the centre of the learn-
the selection procedure for the articles that were included in each ing process and its associated data. The authors also discuss how
stage of this SLR. this new model affects various aspects of lifelong learning [40].
We extracted the most relevant data from every paper based The Ethereum Blockchain platform is used to implement the core
on the research questions. Every selected paper was analysed components of this student-centred ecosystem with a focus on
7
H.A. Alsobhi, R.A. Alakhtar, A. Ubaid et al. Knowledge-Based Systems 265 (2023) 110238

Table 3
Categorization of articles as either IPMM or PMM.
Research Paper Title Category
Mikroyannidis et al. [33] A Case Study on the Decentralization of Lifelong Learning Using IPMM
Blockchain Technology
Mikroyannidis et al. [14] Supporting Lifelong Learning with Smart Blockchain Badges IPMM
Mikroyannidis et al. [34] Smart Blockchain Badges for Data Science Education IPMM
Mainetti et al. [23] Digital Brick: Enhancing the Student Experience Using Blockchain, Open IPMM
Badges and Recommendations
Arenas and Fernandez [31] CredenceLedger: A Permissioned Blockchain for Verifiable Academic PMM
Credentials
Choi et al. [12] Blockchain-Based Badge Award with Existence Proof PMM
Kishore et al. [13] Blockchain-Based Micro-credentials: Design, Implementation, Evaluation PMM
and Adoption
Lim et al. [32] Developing a Framework for the University-Wide Implementation of PMM
Micro-Credentials and Digital Badges: A Case Study from a Malaysian
Private University
Turkanović et al. [5] EduCTX: A Blockchain-Based Higher Education Credit Intelligent PMM
platform
Chukowry et al. [2] The future of continuous learning–Digital badge and micro-credentialing PMM
system using blockchain
Terzi et al. [18] A Life-Long Learning Education Passport Powered by Blockchain PMM
Technology and Verifiable Digital Credentials: The BlockAdemiC Project
Ghonim and Corpuz [36] Moving Towards a Digital Competency-based Approach in Applied PMM
Education: Developing a System Supported by Blockchain to Enhance
Competency-Based Credentials
Kumaresh [37] Academic Blockchain: An Application of Blockchain Technology in PMM
Education System
Srivastava et al. [38] A Distributed Credit Transfer Educational Framework based on PMM
Blockchain
Alam et al. [39] A Blockchain-based framework for secure Educational Credentials PMM

Fig. 3. Selection process of the SLR.

how e-portfolios, accreditation, and tutoring can be developed, as Later, Mikroyannidis et al. [33] proposed a decentralized solu-
well as the different benefits this evolution can provide to lifelong tion using blockchain that allows students to make a better learn-
learners [40]. ing plan depending on their planned job path which provides
8
H.A. Alsobhi, R.A. Alakhtar, A. Ubaid et al.
them complete control on their education data and procedures.
A reputational ecosystem was developed to allow students to
rate courses, online materials, and professors on how easy they
are to understand and other factors relevant to their unique
learning objectives. Also, students can give each other ratings
on a variety of attributes. Furthermore, the authors discussed
several ways to the Semantic Blockchain and their applicability to
e-learning [33]. The Semantic Blockchain provides a way to com-
bine all an individual's obtained learning skills and credentials to
produce a comprehensive image of their lifelong learning [33]. In
this research, the authors conducted a pilot case study in lifelong
learning based on the Semantic Blockchain that attempt to apply
a decentralization technique to manage various requirements
such as integrity, accessibility, and confidentiality [33]. The aim
of the pilot study is to provide job and course recommendations
and unchangeable learning credentials to lifelong learners, and
help them to reach their learning and career goals. This is to
support lifelong learning using blockchain technology and com-
bining smart badges and personalized recommendations [33]. The
authors report in this study that they have completed the first
phase in relation to requirements elicitation and will embark on
the second phase of designing, installation, and testing this pilot
case study.
For the second phase, Mikroyannidis et al. [14] proposed an
initial web-based prototype to implement, deploy, and evaluate
the lifelong learning pilot study. Personalized recommendations
are also used as an intelligent process to assist lifelong learners
in achieving their personal and career learning objectives. Us-
ing blockchain technology enables lifelong learning to become
decentralized and provides lifelong learners with a transparent
and unchangeable educational framework in the format of smart
badges to assist them to reach their learning objectives and ca-
reer pathways [41]. Therefore, this decentralized solution enables
storing, sharing, and verifying educational credentials (formal and
informal), and then offers personalized recommendations about
careers and what to study next based on the student's previously
acquired credentials [41]. When all the datasets containing job
offers and their related skills are stored in smart contracts on the
Ethereum Blockchain, job offers can be matched to the student's
skills [14].
Mainetti et al. [23] designed a novel e-learning system archi-
tecture called Digital Brick to improve the experience of students
when receiving official certifications of their competencies. This
system is built on the shareable content object reference model
(SCORM) learning management system that offers all stakehold-
ers in the learning field access to a certification system and
makes use of blockchain and open badge technologies. The main
goal of this research is to provide students with accessible and
adaptable online environments so they can select and complete
courses and receive formal learning certifications. To achieve this
goal, the authors proposed an intelligent platform that innovates
how students can acquire and share the official certifications
they receive to improve the students'experience [23]. Moreover,
the authors used digital badges/micro-credentials to issue formal
certifications and blockchain technology to increase the security,
openness, and transparency of badge sharing among stakehold-
ers. A private Ethereum blockchain was used as a network and
smart contracts were deployed to represent digital badges which
indicate the student's achievements. The authors also developed
a novel recommendation system based on machine learning al-
gorithms to recommend the course materials and learning paths
that are best suited to the students'learning strategies to obtain
formal digital badges and certifications [23]. A hybrid system of
collaborative filtering with content-based filtering was used to
develop the recommendation system. Finally, to evaluate the sys-
tem and obtain the results, they used a laboratory case study that
9
Knowledge-Based Systems 265 (2023) 110238
included all the features of the system architecture. The results
show that better transaction throughput and latency were at-
tained for the certification system and better prediction accuracy
was attained for the recommendation system [23].
5.2. Platform for managing micro-credentials (PMM)
The other platforms that are presented in the existing studies
for managing micro-credentials offer mechanisms to manage and
store micro-credentials, but they do not perform tasks intelli-
gently. As shown in Table 3, there are 11 proposed platforms in
the reviewed literature that have been classified under the PMM
category.
Turkanović et al. [5] proposed EduCTX, a distributed block-
chain-based micro-credential for higher education and ‘‘the Euro-
pean Credit Transfer and Accumulation System (ECTS)’’, which is a
global grading system that can manage, assign, and process ECTX
tokens as a digital academic micro-credential for every student
and HEI. This platform manages and processes micro-credentials
based on blockchain technology and provides a solution to a
number of difficulties, including language, administrative barri-
ers, and unemployment. Additionally, this technology transforms
academic credentials into a worldwide, easier, more omnipresent
format [5]. Students will benefit from having access to all their
previously completed courses in one place, and HEIs will have
access to this data as well. After obtaining the approval of a
student, multiple HEIs can verify the submitted micro-credentials.
The first version of the EduCTX prototype was built on the Ark
blockchain technology [5], and the second version was developed
based on the Ethereum blockchain and used smart contracts to
guarantee security, privacy, trustworthiness, and speed [19].
Lim et al. [32] discussed several micro-credentialing imple-
mentation possibilities for undergraduate programmes at Taylor
's University. The micro-credentials can be executed using TIMeS,
a learning management system (LMS) as the basic platform and
can be stored and verified using blockchain technology. The au-
thors described the student learning journey through the micro-
credential eco-system in each phase [32]. A student must meet
the requirements for micro-credentials in order to receive it. Once
the required programme has been completed by the student,
digital badges are issued automatically as a result of the inte-
gration of the developed micro-credential platform with the LMS.
This eco-system enables students to share their digital badges on
social media and professional networks, as well as to use them
to demonstrate their achievements to potential employers [32].
In addition, it is a very helpful platform for students to earn
micro-credentials from undergraduate programmes at Malaysian
universities [32].
Kishore et al. [13] designed, implemented, and evaluated a
system based on blockchain to manage micro-credentials that
operates independently and is housed in the executive education
programme of a business school. This system is based on ‘‘MIT's
Blockcerts project’’, and the credentials are securely verified us-
ing blockchain technology [13]. The evaluation of this system's
implementation is based on understanding user perceptions (the
certificate issuer and recipient). The authors used the design
science research methodology (DSRM) to allow users to use this
system for a long time and to make the credential generation
process easier. They used cert-manager as a online form that
the issuer completes with information including the title of the
certificate, a description of the certificate, the logo on the cer-
tificate and list of receivers in a file [13]. This information is
compiled and sent to cert-tools, a module that creates certificates
for each student, after which cert-issuer generates a certificate
hash for verification, and cert-viewer helps to display and verify
certificates online. In term of the evaluation process, the authors
H.A. Alsobhi, R.A. Alakhtar, A. Ubaid et al.
used a qualitative approach, including interviews with students
who had earned micro-credentials and issuers who created the
credentials for the students [13]. This work looks at how a micro-
credentialing system is implemented, with a special focus on user
impressions.
Choi et al. [12] used blockchain technology to implement a
digital badge awarding platform for the education sector. This
platform was used across many platforms to earn, issue, ex-
change, and award badges that are compatible with Open Badges
of the IMS Global Learning Consortium [12]. To keep the infor-
mation safe, these badges were stored, authenticated, and issued
in a blockchain and can be displayed online to interested third
parties to demonstrate the student's skills and knowledge. The
authors employed two platforms: the Badgr platform for issuing
digital badges, and the Blockcert platform for managing digital
badges via blockchain [12]. The Badgr platform creates a digital
badge with a picture and metadata, where the image represents
the accomplishment and the metadata reflects the details of the
accomplishment, and then it is published in two formats: text and
URL (JSON) and image (PNG) [12]. With this platform, all students
are able to participate in lifelong learning and online distance
education. This research is applicable to micro-learning units in
training courses and online education courses. When a student
completes a micro-learning unit, they receive a digital badge.
The digital badges of the suitable micro-learning units are issued
when the requirements are satisfied, and these badges are used
to issue certificates for courses or degrees [12]. Every student has
an e-portfolio in which they can save and manage their badges, as
well as manage their careers. A student can grant organizations or
individuals permission to access their e-portfolio [12]. This paper
offers a blockchain-based badge awarding system for managing
micro-learning unit digital badges.
Chukowry et al. [2] proposed a web-based micro-credentialing
system to assist students to obtain new skills or improve their
skills in a shorter time and in a simpler and more adaptable
way. This system was built based on Ethereum blockchain which
is a trustworthy, decentralized, and immutable system that has
gained students’ trust and performs significantly better than con-
ventional e-Learning platforms [2]. The proposed micro-creden-
tialing system includes quizzes and digital badges that stores the
badge image and firebase for examination, registration, and stor-
ing courses [2]. A micro-credentialing system has many features,
for example it is more practical which can help a student save
time and cost, they can complete more courses in the same time
frame of one university course, and they can easily choose their
preferred course [2]. Through this system, universities can give
students access to their courses, exams, and digital badges. This
research addresses the limitations and the weakness of traditional
e-learning platforms by proposing a micro-credentialing system
that is built on blockchain technology to provide secure exam-
inations and trustworthy and immutable digital badges for the
students that represent all their achievements [2].
Terzi et al. [18] developed a digital system supported by
blockchain for life-long learning. The BlockAdemiC project uses
blockchain technology to build a secure, decentralized system
for storing and verifying micro-credentials, educational tasks,
certificates, diplomas, skills, and qualifications attained in higher
education. To address the issues of certificate fraud that have
not yet been dealt with satisfactorily, the lack of a formal rep-
resentation, and the acknowledgement of informal and life-long
learning outcomes, an open-source blockchain technology is used
to prevent certificate fraud in higher education and life-long
learning domains and guarantees the confidentiality, privacy,
integrity, and immutability of the information pertaining to de-
grees, certifications, and skills that students have achieved [18].
As a result, a safe, trustworthy, and transparent environment is
10
Knowledge-Based Systems 265 (2023) 110238
built where stakeholders can verify their qualifications, certifi-
cates, skills, and micro-credentials. This system is a solution that
can enable the creation of a digital education passport by offering
a cryptographically secure wallet for safely managing all digital
credentials pertaining to a student's education and training [18].
Ghonim and Corpuz [36] developed a new e-system for
competency-based education (CBE) that uses blockchain tech-
nology. The digital CBE system evaluates practical activities as a
result of a distinctive learning experience in order to highlight
the strengths and weaknesses aspects of the required skills and
competences. The main objective of this research is the digital-
ization of competency-based education and the use of student
e-portfolios as a suggested system for applied learning because
the learning experience must align with industry expectations
and new micro-credentials must be offered to indicate the ac-
quired skills and competencies. By developing competency-based
micro-credentials, the proposed digital CBE will strengthen the
links between applied education institutions and businesses [36].
This system also accurately assesses learning experience out-
comes and suggests the competency-based micro-credentials to
be offered to employers. Moreover, it issues the micro-credentials
that users can obtain by demonstrating their skills and competen-
cies through the use of an electronic portfolio of evidence which
is the result of learning activities. Using blockchain technology
as a solution in the digital CBE system is to securely store, issue,
verify, and trace skills and competencies, improve the learning
experience outcomes of the competency-based education ap-
proach in applied higher education institutions, and enhance
the efficiency of CBE, curricula, and assessment techniques used
in applied education. The difference between non-digital CBE
and digital CBE revolves around the additional levels of the
qualification framework's mapping and the use of blockchain
technology [36].
Kumaresh [37] proposed an academic blockchain application
in the education field to store students'certificates, achievements,
credentials, and information on their additional skills/qualificat-
ions in the blockchain. The main objective of this study is to
devise a method to store the data on students'records in the
blockchain so stakeholders can access and validate student cre-
dentials easily. The use of academic blockchain makes it simple
for stakeholders to track and identify fraudulent transactions in
the education system as well as fake educational credits [37].
While digital badges make it easier to recognize a particular skill
obtained by the student, one or more badges can be combined
into an open badge passport in the academic blockchain and dis-
tributed throughout the network. Consortium blockchain is more
appropriate for academic blockchain. In this study, the authors
used solidity to implement the academic blockchain and they ran
a pilot study with only a small number of nodes participating, and
the outcomes are evaluated in terms of transaction latency. The
authors detected that 100% threshold is required for a latency of
15 s [37]. The proposed application stores the student's creden-
tials, grades, and achievements in a highly secure manner and has
advantages in terms of cost and time. Additionally, it makes all
these data available to stakeholders and employers to facilitate
the recruitment process across the world and it makes interaction
between educational stakeholders easy and efficient [37].
Srivastava et al. [38] proposed a global trust credit transfer
platform using blockchain technology in the education system
to provide simple access to student credit transfers between
universities and credit viewing by possible stakeholders. This
system helps to validate the academic credentials of a student
enrolled in a university that can be transmitted digitally among
the stakeholders, such as higher education institutions and com-
panies. Additionally, it stores students'records, transcripts, and
micro-credentials, as well as having an electronic credit transfer
H.A. Alsobhi, R.A. Alakhtar, A. Ubaid et al. Knowledge-Based Systems 265 (2023) 110238

Table 4 6.1. Ability to manage micro-credentials based on an intelligent,

Comparison of the existing IPMM articles against the requirements. trustworthy, and global platform
Research Paper Requirements
Req1 Req2 Req3 Req4 Scant scholarly research has been conducted on micro-cred-
Mikroyannidis et al. [33] Yes No No No entials in higher education to date. Although public and private
Mikroyannidis et al. [14] Yes No No No universities around the world, including Australia, are becoming
Mikroyannidis et al. [34] Yes No No No increasingly interested in micro-credentials, which are the most
Mainetti et al. [23] No No No No
recent innovation in online education after the COVID-19 pan-
demic [1]. Based on our analysis, we found 15 existing articles
Table 5 that provide higher education micro-credential platforms using
Comparison of the existing PMM articles against the requirements. blockchain technology as shown in Fig. 3. These platforms address
Research Paper Requirements the issue of storing, validating, and accessing digital credentials in
Req1 Req2 Req3 Req4 a secure manner, so they are easily available and widely accepted.
Arenas and Fernandez [31] No No No No They use blockchain technology to provide direct management
Choi et al. [12] No No No No and control over the micro-credentials that a student has ac-
Kishore et al. [13] No No No No quired while ensuring ongoing protection and storage for them.
Lim et al. [32] No No No No
While all the platforms of both (IPMM and PMM) categories are
Turkanović et al. [5] No Yes No No
Chukowry et al. [2] No No No No managing micro-credentials based on blockchain technology, we
Terzi et al. [18] No No No No consider them as trustworthy platforms [5].
Ghonim and Corpuz [36] No No No No As detailed in [14,33,34], the platforms of IPMM category
Kumaresh [37] No No No No are developed based on a distributed public ledger blockchain
Srivastava et al. [38] No Yes No No
(Ethereum) for sharing and transferring micro-credentials and
Alam et al. [39] No No No No
educational data across European countries, so we also consider
them as global platforms and everyone can join them from any
where in Europe. However, the Digital Brick platform uses a
mechanism [38]. This credit system is based on tokens which are private blockchain technology (Hyperledger and Ethereum) [23],
credit values that are granted to university students upon the suc- so this platform is not global.
cessful completion of courses. This proposed platform is similar As all these IPMM platforms provide personalized recommen-
to the EduCTX platform [5] in that it creates a global decentral- dations for the students as to what courses they should study
ized credit transfer platform in higher education institutions . next, which job position is appropriate, and learning paths, so we
However, the EduCTX platform does not deal with the issue of can consider them as intelligent platforms. As shown in Table 4,
a student enrolling in many courses under the same teacher, and three platforms of IPMM category [14,33,34] are satisfied only the
first requirement because they are intelligent, trustworthy, and
the student is assigned a 2-2 multi-signature address [5]. On the
global platforms to manage and store micro-credentials for the
other hand, their proposed platform offers a one-to-one multi-
students in HEIs.
signature address between a student and a teacher for numerous
According to Turkanović et al. [5],Choi et al. [12],Srivastava
courses. Both platforms are built based on an open-source Ark
et al. [38] that fall under the PMM category, the EduCTX, the
blockchain platform, a private and permissioned blockchain to digital badge awarding, and the credit transfer platforms are de-
ensure students'records are anonymized [38]. veloped based on Ethereum public blockchain and Ark blockchain
Alam et al. [39] discussed blockchain applications in the edu- which make them trustworthy and global but not intelligent
cation field and their challenges. The authors also offered details platforms. consequently, none of the PMM articles meet the first
about security, privacy, and trust in blockchain and proposed requirement as shown in Table 5.
a digital credential framework based on blockchain. This pro-
posed system will keep the student's information secure and 6.2. Ability to verify and share micro-credentials in a privacy-pre-
allow students to verify their degrees for an indefinite period serving manner
of time. This system also can make the verification process for
micro-credentials, transcripts, and certifications easier and more The existing micro-credential platforms make use of blockchain
reliable [39]. Students will obtain digital micro-credentials and advantages as a decentralized architecture that provides secu-
an academic degree once they have completed all units of their rity, confidentiality, durability, lucidity, and immutability. Most
blockchain platforms lack the ability to manage private data
academic programme and have met the requirements for the
because data on the ledger can be read by any node on the
degree. The students also can share their academic credentials
blockchain [26]. There is a need to provide anonymously search-
with other stakeholders, such as employers and higher educa-
able for a student data. Therefore, to preserve a student's real
tion institutions, by sending a specific identity to verify them.
identity and ensure private for the student data when shar-
The main objective of this proposed system is to benefit from ing micro-credentials on the blockchain between HEIs, micro-
blockchain in several ways, such as storing, verifying, and sharing credential platforms need to apply anonymization techniques
students'credentials quickly and easily in a secure manner [39]. [26].
Turkanović et al. [5], the EduCTX provides a technique to
6. Discussion of open issues anonymize student data and achieve privacy on the blockchain,
where each student is given a blockchain address that is unique
to them and presented with it to be anonymous. Moreover, Sri-
In this section, we compare the selected studies against the vastava et al. [38] uses a unique student identifier to transfer
four predefined requirements. Additionally, based on the com- the credits to the student's record without disclosure of the
parison presented in Table 6, we identify the shortcomings of student's real identity. Compared to other existing platforms of
the existing blockchain-based micro-credential platforms in HEIs both IPMM and PMM categories, only the EduCTX and credit
from the standpoint of the requirements as open issues for future transfer educational platforms satisfy the second requirement, as
work. detailed in Table 5.
11
H.A. Alsobhi, R.A. Alakhtar, A. Ubaid et al. Knowledge-Based Systems 265 (2023) 110238

Table 6
Comparative analysis of the selected papers.
Research Paper Is the platform Does it use Does it provide Does it use a
global, privacy- specialization multi-criteria
intelligent, and preserving recommenda- decision
trustworthy? techniques? tions? mechanism?
Arenas and Fernandez [31] No No No No
Choi et al. [12] No No No No
Kishore et al. [13] No No No No
Lim et al. [32] No No No No
Turkanović et al. [5] No Yes No No
Chukowry et al. [2] No No No No
Mikroyannidis et al. [33] Yes No No No
Mikroyannidis et al. [14] Yes No No No
Mikroyannidis et al. [34] Yes No No No
Mainetti et al. [23] No No No No
Terzi et al. [18] No No No No
Ghonim and Corpuz [36] No No No No
Kumaresh [37] No No No No
Srivastava et al. [38] No Yes No No
Alam et al. [39] No No No No

6.3. Ability to provide a proper specialization recommendation for
students
Mikroyannidis et al. [14],Mainetti et al. [23,23],Mikroyannidis
et al. [33,34], the accreditation systems of the IPMM category
provide personalized recommendation to help students achieve
their academic objectives on both a personal and professional
level. They developed an intelligent platform that offers person-
alized recommendations to assist lifelong learners reaching their
personal and career learning objectives. These recommendations
are for course materials, learning paths, jobs that match the
students'skills based on their educational credentials, and for
courses that enable the student to obtained certifications, and
the additional skills needed for the recommended job [14,33,34].
However, they do not generate recommendations for student's
specialization (study of area) based on their educational creden-
tials, so they are not satisfied our third requirement as detailed
in Table 4.
Chukowry et al. [2], the micro-credential platform of the PMM
category allows students to select their desired course, take the
exam and receive credit. Unfortunately, it cannot assist students
in the course selection process by recommending the most suit-
able course to enable them to meet their educational goals. To
summarize, none of the PMM and IPMM credential platforms
achieves the third requirement as detailed in Tables 5 and 5.
7. Conclusion and future work
This paper provides a thorough review of the relevant litera-
ture to help readers understand the current state of the work on
blockchain-based micro-credentialing systems in HEIs. Moreover,
it identifies the research needs surrounding the management of
micro-credentials based on blockchain technology in the higher
education sector. We used the SLR approach to review the various
proposed approaches which have been proposed for the exist-
ing blockchain-based micro-credentialing systems. This review
helped us to identify their style of working and find the research
gaps that need to be addressed in the future. Based on our
analysis, we found only 15 studies that offer blockchain-based
micro-credential platforms in HEIs. These articles have been criti-
cally analysed for further clarification, compared against the four
main requirements, and the research gaps have been identified.
In the future, we plan to develop an intelligent blockchain-
based micro-credential framework for higher education students
to manage micro-credentials and provide learning recommenda-
tions for students. Having a trustworthy, intelligent, and global
system to manage micro-credentials will help students, higher
education providers, and employers.
CRediT authorship contribution statement

6.4. Ability to view all offered action plans and help students in
selecting a suitable one based on multiple criteria
Assisting students in their decision-making is the system's
capacity to intelligently forecast an appropriate choice based on
a variety of criteria. Students want to access all received action
plans from multiple universities over a micro-credential platform.
Then to help a student to select the suitable one, the platform
can customize these action plans by filtering them based on the
student's preferred requirements, such as the location of the
university, language, duration of the course, university rank, etc.
Unfortunately, none of the IPMM articles provide an intelligent
technique to filter many action plans and recommend an appro-
priate one according to the students’ specific criteria. As a result,
the fourth requirement is also not satisfied by all existing micro-
credential platforms of both IPMM and PMM categories as shown
in Tables 4 and 5.
In conclusion, three articles of the IPMM category [14,33,34]
met only the first requirement as shown in Table 4, and two arti-
cles of the PMM category [5,38] met only the second requirement
as shown in Table 5.
12
Hada A. Alsobhi: Conceptualization of the idea, Formal analy-
sis, Investigation, Data curation, development, Writing – original
draft, Initial and final draft version of the manuscript. Rayed
A. Alakhtar: Writing – review & editing, Feedback towards fi-
nalization, Supervision, Validation. Ayesha Ubaid: Writing – re-
view & editing, Feedback towards finalization. Omar K. Hussain:
Writing – review & editing, Feedback towards finalization. Fa-
rookh Khadeer Hussain: Co-conceptualization of the idea, Led
the project in setting its scope, Overall project and fnal draft
review and feedback.
Declaration of competing interest
The authors declare that they have no known competing finan-
cial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared
to influence the work reported in this paper.
Data availability
No data was used for the research described in the article.
H.A. Alsobhi, R.A. Alakhtar, A. Ubaid et al.
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