A professional-driven blockchain framework for sharing E-Portfolio in the context of Industry 4.0

Abstract

The journey towards Industry 4.0 have driven the workforce with the need for continuous competency development to stay on top of their profession and remain attractive to their employers. In this context, E-Portfolio has been conceived as a promising tool for both professionals and employers, in assessing and providing guidance for further workplace learning. Nevertheless, the challenges in implementing E-Portfolio are daunting, particularly with regard to lack of interoperability while collecting and sharing the competency evidences across multiple organizations and institutions. The increasing move towards professional (learner)-centered interoperability poses additional challenges that needs to be addressed to realize the full potential of E-Portfolio in the context of Industry 4.0. This work puts emphasize on realization of professional-centered interoperability and proposes a framework leveraging the advantage of blockchain, decentralized storage system interplanetary file system, smart contract and session management for E-Portfolio creation and sharing evidences across multiple organizations without comprising the confidentiality, integrity and availability of the shared evidences. The proof of concept simulation on Ethereum official test network Rinkeby demonstrates the feasibility of proposed framework in practice. In addition, the evaluation of the proposed framework demonstrates its effectiveness from the aspects of cost and security as a potential solution for implementing E-Portfolio and helping the professional to remain competitive in global labor market.