How blockchain technology can play an integrative role in developing alternative higher education for the next generation of students Richard Maaghul Follow Oct 29, 2017 · 2 min read

Since the economic crisis of 2008, more and more families are being confronted with the reality of how unaffordable higher education has become and how difficult it is for today’s students to gain a skill, get a decent job and live a prosperous and productive life.

Unfortunately, many parents are unable to muster the financial resources to provide a meaningful education for their children even with the assistance of loans and other student aid. One result of the rising cost of education is an influx of younger, unskilled people into the workforce.

Even those among the younger generation who can find some way to finance their education, many are pivoting away from traditional schools to avoid the burden of big loans to acquire a degree that may not prepare them for jobs upon graduation.

So where are the alternative solutions? One shift has come with the increase in available online education. And although surveys show that the popularity of online education is growing, students are missing out on interacting with live instructors and professors and classmates. In the process, in-person classroom experiences that are critical for the building of sustainable social and business-world skills are being lost.

Many institutions and private education companies are trying to develop alternative education solutions. However, many traditional schools are shackled to expensive administrative systems that exacerbate the problem of affordability.

What’s more, these large, bureaucratic institutions are not nimble enough to evolve their educational offerings to match the demands of today’s students or their prospective employers.

Welcome to a new generation of educational innovators.

ODEM.IO, along with its sister company, Excelorators, provides custom, open enrollment programs for international students for both localized and international needs. Crucially, our platform leverages emerging blockchain technology to provide trust, transparency and fair and effective pricing for educational experiences.

We believe in the power of creating a decentralized platform for today’s students and educators where they can work directly with one another (without the need for institutional or professional intermediaries) to enhance the benefits of in-person education.

We expect these and other changes to deliver a completely new standard for accredited and skilled educational programs.

In the coming weeks and months, I will be sharing more about how ODEM.IO and Excelorators will be working together to bring innovation and energy to education.

Stay tuned.

Rich