Maryville University Partners With Learning Machine to Issue Digital Diplomas Using Blockcerts

ST. LOUIS, November 20, 2019 (Newswire.com) - Maryville University has joined a group of prominent U.S. educational institutions issuing blockchain-secured digital diplomas in partnership with Learning Machine. Six hundred graduates were invited to receive their diplomas as Blockcerts, an open digital credential standard developed by Learning Machine and MIT. Blockcerts enables anchoring official records to a blockchain to prevent fraud and provide free, decentralized verification of credentials.

The Blockcerts initiative aligns with Maryville University's digital transformation strategy, which includes programs like Digital World. Through Digital World, students in select programs receive a free iPad they can keep even after graduation. By issuing Blockcerts, Maryville University also seeks to empower graduates with lifelong ownership of their academic credentials.

Feng Hou, Chief Digital Transformation Evangelist at Maryville University, described the strategic value of the Blockcerts credentialing project. "Higher education needs to accelerate blockchain adoption, and Maryville University is leading the way by first partnering with Learning Machine to create a student-owned learning credential solution. We'll continue building career-focused student digital profiles and lifelong learning profiles on blockchain to assist our students with their career building and lifelong learning."

In addition to digital diplomas, Maryville University also plans to issue blockchain-secured digital transcripts. Blockcerts transcripts allow students to independently share their records when moving between schools and applying for further education or jobs. Because Blockcerts is an open standard, any institution can instantly verify the transcript without needing to join a particular software provider's blockchain network or subscribe to their solution.

Natalie Smolenski, SVP Business Development at Learning Machine, added, "We are moving into a world where people, including students and graduates, want to be in control of their personal data like never before. Blockcerts enables this by providing issuers and recipients of official records with strong cryptographic protections against fraud while decentralizing records ownership, storage, sharing, and verification. This is the direction digital credentialing is moving in 2020."

For further information, please contact:

Maryville University: Marcia Sullivan, Vice President for Integrated Marketing and Communications / Marcia.Sullivan@Maryville.edu

Learning Machine: Natalie Smolenski / nsmolenski@learningmachine.com

About Maryville University

Founded in 1872, Maryville University is a comprehensive and nationally ranked private institution with an enrollment of 10,200 students. Maryville offers more than 90 programs at the undergraduate, master's and doctoral levels to students from 50 states and 58 countries. Among recent graduates, 97 percent are employed or attending graduate school within six months of graduation.

For more information about Maryville University, visit https://www.maryville.edu or follow on Twitter @MaryvilleU.

About Learning Machine

Learning Machine provides Enterprise Credentialing Systems that issue verifiable credentials using the Blockcerts open standard. Blockcerts, developed by MIT and Learning Machine, is the leading international open standard for issuing recipient-owned credentials to any blockchain. Learning Machine's global customer base includes governments, companies, and school systems.

For more information about Learning Machine, visit https://www.learningmachine.com or follow on Twitter @LearningMach1.

Source: Learning Machine