Preparing for the future with ODEM’s top three habits from Stephen Covey

Stephen Covey’s 7 Habits of Highly Effective People is a timeless map for finding success in professional and personal relationships, and ultimately in your career. In his book, Covey helps his readers understand the pillars of productive behavior, outlining how each habit will impact our effectiveness in life.

While all seven habits are very much worthwhile, three of his habits particularly resonate with us because they highlight ODEM values: begin with the end in mind (habit #2), think win-win (habit #4), and seek first to understand, then to be understood (habit #5). These three habits also provide a strong foundation for new graduates. Here’s why:

Habit #2  |  Begin with the end in mind

This habit is about acting with your desired outcome in mind. With each decision you make that takes you further down life’s path, consider whether the action will drive you towards your end goal. To do this, you must know what you want the ‘big picture’ to look like. What are you striving for? What would you like to achieve?

Perhaps you would like to narrow your professional focus so that you can serve a niche within the market. Maybe you’d like to switch careers for the job you’ve always dreamed of. Understanding what life looks like after you’ve put in the hard work gives you a road map to follow. Big and little decisions should be made with this big picture in mind. Stephen Covey explains it as having a vision for our lives and determining what values will guide us towards that vision.

Beginning with the end in mind is a habit focused on serving self. Learning to evaluate choices based on whether the various outcomes support your personal objectives is a big step towards independence. This is a guiding principle at ODEM, in which we evaluate each of the courses added to the Platform for their unique content, what the student experience will be like, and whether the course will give the student an industry advantage. Only the courses that serve these objectives are added and made available to you at ODEM.

Habit #4  |  Think win-win

Win-win situations favor both parties involved; instead of one person winning and the other losing, both people feel that they have a successful outcome. This habit builds communication skills, collaboration and teamwork.

Thinking win-win becomes natural when you have a mentality of abundance rather than scarcity. Abundance means that there’s room for all to enjoy success, whereas scarcity means there’s only enough success for one. Thinking in terms of abundance provides opportunities to better the outcome for your peers, colleagues, friends and family. Ultimately, it’s a mindset that will serve you well both in practice and reputation.
Mutually beneficial outcomes strengthen relationships which creates alliances between parties. ODEM was built on this concept, providing a platform that equally serves students and employers. Students receive the continued learning experience they seek, while employers receive well-trained employees who understand the needs of today’s job market.

Habit #5  |  Seek first to understand, then to be understood

Before providing guidance to a peer, a recommendation to a client, or a product to the market, seek first to understand the nuances of the problem you’re looking to solve.
Habit five is about deeply understanding the people who we seek to serve. Listening achieves this, and while it seems a simple solution to a successful outcome, it isn’t. Too often we prepare responses that serve us rather than the person or group we’re engaged with. Empathetic listening and prioritizing the concerns of others, leads to true understanding, a better connection, and an opportunity to provide a meaningful solution.

We seek to achieve this habit in our work with students, educators, and employers. What is it that students want from online courses and continued education? What do educators wish to provide their students, and what do employers require from online courses to ensure success in the workplace? Our mission at ODEM is to ensure that each of the courses we provide serves the needs of students while simultaneously meeting the needs of employers and educators. We engage industry professionals, company executives, and teachers to understand how we can provide a valuable solution. With this in mind, we develop our course offerings for the Platform.

Two more from ODEM

We’d like to take the liberty of adding two more recommendations to the list: follow your passion and stay hungry.

Passion makes everything worthwhile. Following your passions in life makes everyday more enjoyable, and notably makes work not feel like work. But life’s demands can get in the way of passion-filled pursuits, and work can be a necessity rather than a pleasure. This is one of the reasons why we believe in online courses; they’re an effective way to specialize your expertise so that you may pursue the career you’re passionate about.

Figuratively, staying hungry means to continuously seek out new opportunities that may better your circumstances. A hunger for more, or for better, propels you forward to strive for your goals and create the life that you want. Without this motivation, we may not achieve what we desire for ourselves — it’s an important ingredient in the recipe for success.

Read all of Stephen Covey’s 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, and join us at ODEM to discover the many course options that can help define your career.

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The ODEM Platform represents a transparent and trusted digital connection for students and educators who use it every day. Through the Marketplace, ODEM helps to make education more affordable, accessible, verifiable, and transferable.

ODEM stands for On-Demand Education Marketplace because users can pursue learning experiences at their own pace. Like other digital marketplaces, ODEM connects buyers with sellers. Buyers seek personalized, continued education experiences, while sellers around the world offer a full range of academic programs. In the same way that Amazon uses artificial intelligence (AI) to recommend products that may interest you, ODEM uses AI to measure student demand for specific program topics and to streamline the market experience. This drives down the cost of education through automation and adds transparency to the process of creating and selecting programs.

The ODEM Platform is different from other marketplaces like Upwork or Fiverr because it’s layered on the Ethereum blockchain — a big advantage for ODEM users. Building the marketplace on Ethereum provides students with a central record of their academic experiences and certifications. It also grants students ownership of their academic credentials; they can claim their verified diploma on the blockchain by registering their achievement on the Platform.

In September, ODEM began collaborating with 10EQS, a New York-based organization dedicated to providing client-specific solutions by matching client companies with niche experts to build successful project teams. Our Marketplace streamlines the process of bringing the right people together quickly.

The ODEM-10EQS “partnership is a testament to our Platform’s ability to champion pragmatic knowledge and training to solve real-world business problems,” says ODEM CEO Richard Maaghul. “We’re empowering students with the tools they need to be employable.”

ODEM is partnering the Southern Alberta Institute of Technology (SAIT) in Calgary, Alberta, Canada, to support its 2019 graduating class in securing records of their academic credentials on the Ethereum blockchain. SAIT, quoting President and CEO, Dr. David Ross: “At SAIT, we’re thought leaders and this is a strong example of how we’re increasing our value proposition for graduates and employers. This is only the beginning as we continue to put the potential of blockchain technology into practice.”

These types of innovative partnerships support ODEM’s mission of providing a meeting place where authentic connections can occur — something that many marketplaces aspire to, but which few succeed. ODEM’s implementation on the Ethereum blockchain ensures authenticity, validating all marketplace participants and securing transaction records to support and improve the user experience.

“We’ve developed an educational marketplace that’s built on trust,” says ODEM CEO Maaghul. “When it comes to learning, you need to feel safe. Everyone dreams of new career possibilities, and education makes those dreams possible. To dream is to be vulnerable and open-minded, so trust is essential to the continued learning experience. We believe in trust, but the blockchain ensures it.”

Stay tuned for more ODEM developments.

Rich Maaghul,
CEO
ODEM

Our mission is to help you succeed in your educational and career pursuits.

Learn more about our on-demand education marketplace at Telegram, LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter.

The post The ODEM Marketplace: Defining an Authentic Digital Connection appeared first on odem.cloud.

Supporting educational development, ODEM (On-Demand Education Marketplace), has created a platform that leverages blockchain technology to help students find new opportunities and secure their achievements.

Built as a layer on the Ethereum blockchain, the marketplace runs on the ODEM token, an ERC20 token that facilitates transactions on the platform. Transaction histories are stored to ensure autonomy and accuracy for all market participants, but most importantly to provide confirmation of academic achievement for students. This format allows students to maintain a single record of their educational experiences and certification, regardless of location or educator.

Blockchain, or distributed ledger technology, supports students in their academic careers because it creates a permanent record of achievement that can’t be tampered with. Immutability is one of the specific benefits of blockchain technology; once data is stored on-chain, it cannot be reversed.

Ethereum, a distributed global ledger, provides a valuable source of provenance for certifications, confirming the validity of educational institutions and the authenticity and legitimacy of credentials. The ODEM Platform connects students to the Ethereum blockchain with a clear, step-by-step process that guides them in securing their diploma. Once these steps are completed, an encrypted version of the credential is stored, but not directly on the blockchain.

In order to create an efficient and lightweight process, records themselves are not stored on the Ethereum blockchain. Instead, a record is encrypted and it is this encryption which is stored on a decentralized, off-chain file system called the Interplanetary File System (IPFS). A hash of the timestamp for this record, along with a URL pointing to the IPFS file location, is stored on the open Ethereum blockchain.

Hashes are important because they represent the encrypted data as a series of unintelligible characters, allowing information privacy on a public network. ODEM secures student certificates and academic transcripts with AES 256 encryption technology (the 256-bit advanced encryption standard is the same one used to secure popular cryptocurrencies), to ensure quick authentication of the data. AES 256 is a government standard for the efficient encryption of data, meaning data can be referenced securely and quickly across blockchain-based networks.

IPFS is an important component of the ODEM system because it makes data storage using a blockchain faster and less costly. It provides an efficient file-store solution that enables blockchains to transact and be referenced far faster than if the actual data was stored directly on-chain. This is because blockchains transact slower when there is a larger amount of data to reference, and this processing time to reference data costs “gas,” a term for the cryptocurrency Ether when it serves as the fuel for the network. In this way, cryptographic hashes perform two functions: they secure your information, and act as a compact representation of your information to be stored on-chain.

The process developed to ensure the security of academic credentials is part of ODEM’s intellectual property, an innovation in storing and accessing decentralized records.

Stay tuned for more ODEM developments.

Rich Maaghul,
CEO
ODEM

Our mission is to help you succeed in your educational and career pursuits.

Learn more about our on-demand education marketplace at Telegram, LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter.

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At ODEM, we’ve been working to make education and the pursuit of lifelong learning easier for students. It’s a mission that our team has been focused on for over 15 years ago, with the addition of blockchain technology in 2017 and creation of our digital marketplace. This technology makes it possible to treat personal records with greater autonomy, giving data owners the power over their records that they deserve.
Today, we’re leveraging blockchain technology in two ways: an Ethereum blockchain-based marketplace that supports the connection of educators, students, and companies who facilitate global programs and the storing of graduation diplomas on the Ethereum blockchain. Placing educational credentials on a blockchain supports students in their pursuit of career and furthered education. Here are four reasons why:

Giving you peace of mind

Your certificate or diploma is your proof of education; it’s the record of achievement that you’ll require in order to move forward. Something so valuable should be safe. While physical copies serve a purpose for institutional records and serve as a meaningful, framed notice of accomplishment, they’re vulnerable to loss, theft, or damage. A digital version provides enhanced security, but a blockchain-based record is the most secure because your educational record can’t be deleted or removed. Distributed ledgers, what a blockchain is based on, are immutable because the ledger of data is hosted across a network of computers. This means that the records stored can’t be changed, and your credentials are safe.

Your records are yours to control

Autonomy of information means control over your data. Blockchain-based records are easily and directly accessed with a private, encrypted key using your phone or desktop computer. With your key, accessible via your cryptographic wallet, only you have the authority to change how your digital diploma is managed and stored.

Combatting diploma fraud

Global diploma fraud poses a problem to us all, reducing the credibility and validity of all diplomas. Fake diplomas disregard the time, cost, and energy that legitimate students devote to their education. Blockchain technology verifies ownership by proving authenticity of provenance; where the diploma came from and who it belongs to. It does this with a global, immutable ledger and your private key. Students can verify the validity of their records by simply sharing the digital address of record, proving which institute granted the designation, when it was issued, and for which discipline.

Innovative solution

Your diploma is designed to prove your education; that you’re equipped to handle the responsibilities of a job and understand the material necessary to be successful at it. Certainly it achieves this, but by placing your diploma on the Ethereum blockchain you demonstrate your abilities. Leveraging blockchain for the secure sharing of your records shows future employers your understanding of a new technology and puts it to use in an innovative and practical way. Let your blockchain-based diploma do the talking for you.
Our mission at ODEM is to support your accomplishments by making them safe and secure. Blockchain technology serves to ease this transition by ensuring the authenticity and validity of your credentials. With a blockchain-based diploma, you’ll be ahead of the curve. Learn more at ODEM.io.

Stay tuned for more ODEM developments.

Rich Maaghul,
CEO
ODEM

Our mission is to help you succeed in your educational and career pursuits.

Learn more about our on-demand education marketplace at Telegram, LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter.

The post 4 Ways Blockchain-Based Records Help Students appeared first on odem.cloud.

Now that you’ve secured a new job, how do you make the most of the opportunity? Here are five tips for creating growth opportunities at work:

1. Listen first, ask questions second

There is much to learn from the people around you, especially those with greater experience and seniority. Engaging with your colleagues is the most effective way to learn on the job, but before you begin asking questions, seek to listen and understand. Observe how and why decisions are made, how a strategy is developed, and what your colleagues are experts at. This gives you an information advantage, allowing you to ask educated, poignant questions and to receive the most informative answers.

2. Make an impression by making yourself invaluable

Make yourself invaluable by doing two things: demonstrate your expertise and your commitment to each and every task. Expertise is what sets you apart, making it clear to your team the value that you bring and why you’re a necessary member of the team. Workplace commitment focuses on being open-minded and a willingness to complete all tasks, complex and simple, to the best of your ability. Be the person your team can count on to execute well.

3. Going above and beyond

When you’re evaluating a task, consider how you could increase the value of your work. This could be done by conducting additional research, reviewing external feedback on social media channels, examining possible “what-if’ outcomes so that your team is prepared for various outcomes, and much more. Taking the extra step to anticipate needs and scenarios demonstrates an ability to think critically and strategically. Just like in customer service, a memorable work experience goes a long way towards developing the relationship you want with your team and your managers.

4. Continuously seek new skills on the job

Increasing your expertise and understanding of how your company operates could open doors to new opportunities within the organization. Each member of the team possesses unique expertise and time permitting, could provide a valuable learning experience. Outside of your company, online courses provide a flexible and customizable approach to learning new skills. Perhaps your team is considering implementing a new technology, researching a financial model, or looking to develop an innovative work culture. Look for courses that support company initiatives and communicate your interest in contributing to the project. Increasing education is always beneficial to personal growth, but most importantly can provide dividends in the workplace.

5. Find a mentor

One of the best ways to develop your career is to find someone who is invested in seeing you succeed. Mentors can provide invaluable advice to help you navigate tough situations and choices. Seek out someone with expertise and a career trajectory that you admire. A mentor not directly related to your role is best so that once a relationship is established, you can ask for honest and unbiased feedback. Having the opinion of someone you trust to help guide you on your professional journey can be both rewarding and impactful.

Stay tuned for more ODEM developments.

Rich Maaghul,
CEO
ODEM

Our mission is to help you succeed in your educational and career pursuits.

Learn more about our on-demand education marketplace at Telegram, LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter.

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In a new program unveiled today, ODEM, creator of the On-Demand Education Marketplace, is partnering with the School of Management Fribourg (HEG-FR), a member of The University of Applied Sciences and Arts of Western Switzerland (HES-SO), to offer a class including blockchain-based academic certificates with ECTS (European Credits Transfer System) credits.

The entrepreneurship & innovation and digital finance course will follow a four-week program with two modules. The first module covers entrepreneurship and innovation across cultures. Students will get the chance to explore the Swiss entrepreneurial ecosystem and discover the conceptual framework to undertake entrepreneurial activities in an international environment. The second module covers digital finance and fintech for the entrepreneur where students will learn about the basic concepts and models of modern financial theories.

There is also a cultural and networking aspect of the program, which enables students to fully experience a new culture. It includes trips, networking events, and the chance to sample Swiss fondue.

“The summer program has always been very well-received by our students since we first introduced it seven years ago. Through this partnership, we are now offering everyone this chance to learn more about entrepreneurship and innovation in a very practical approach. The class is a great opportunity for personal development, professionally and interculturally, and will give the participants a competitive edge in an increasingly tough marketplace.” said Prof. Rico J. Baldegger, Ph.D., Director, and Professor of Strategy, Entrepreneurship & Innovation, School of Management Fribourg.

Blockchain technology empowers students to show that they have specific knowledge and skills to employers and recruiters around the world without the hassle of requesting their records from their higher education institution. Plus, the inclusion of ECTS credits in this program means that students can transfer them to their higher education institution, which will go towards their final degree.
Also, ODEM’s OSP (Occupations, Skills Profiling) data framework will tie the program curriculum to specific skills in association with the ESCO (European Skills, Competencies, Qualifications, and Occupations) framework. This means that students will be able to acquire real skills associated with the curriculum taught in these programs and have even broader access and visibility in the European employment marketplace.

“We want to reframe education so we can break down the barriers between education and employment. By offering a program that is blockchain verified and that offers ECTS credits means that we are one step closer to our goal,” said Richard Maaghul, ODEM CEO.

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The course starts on July 1st and will run until July 26th. Please see the course information for more details. The enrollment deadline is 6th June 2019 for modules 1 and 2, and 15th June for module 2 only.

Media Contacts

ODEM

Ashley Chen,
Director, Marketing
[email protected]
[email protected]
Bahnhofstrasse 10
6300 Zug, Switzerland

School of Management Fribourg (HEG-FR)

Priscillea Stettler-Lengkong
Project Manager, International Office
[email protected]
Chemin du Musée 4
1700 Fribourg, Switzerland

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As you complete your studies, it’s time for the next phase of your journey. Here are five worthwhile tips to consider as you pursue your career path:

1. Be unconventional in your search

While job boards are an easy place to start when you’re looking for an opportunity, they may not be the best place to stand out or to find what you’re looking for. Employers can receive hundreds of applications through a single platform, which means that your resume might get lost in a stack of submissions, all vying for the same job. There’s also the possibility that the job you want, or the company you think you’d be a great fit for, isn’t found on a job board. Seek out opportunities through unconventional means. Look for companies who align with your values on social media platforms like Instagram, Twitter, and LinkedIn. Maybe they’re actively searching for candidates to fill a role, maybe they’re not – sometimes businesses don’t know who they need until candidates come knocking.

2. Create touch points

Before you ask for a job, digitally connect with people at the company — but do it genuinely. Through the company’s about page, or perhaps via a social media feed, find out who works there. Source the folks you could be applying to on Twitter and follow them. Retweet something they posted that resonates with you. Authentic points of connection can add up to a lot when it comes time to reviewing resumes. With touch points like these, a potential employer may recognize your name, and should you be granted an interview you’ll have something in common to discuss, creating a stronger first-time connection.

3. Craft a customized cover letter

Because cover letters have long been a standard, professionals today debate whether a cover letter is worthwhile in pursuit of paid employment. But if you were a business seeking a standout employee to fill a specific role, would you want that future employee to take the time to tell you why they’re right for your company? Absolutely. Demonstrating your commitment to your dream company begins with taking the time to tell them why you’ll be valuable and what you can do for them. Treat your cover letter as a personal letter to the founder, or your potential new manager, addressing the needs of the company and how you’ll meet those needs with your specific skill set — it will set you apart.

4. Ask for what you want

When you’re hoping to be given something, like a career opportunity, it is your responsibility to ask for it and then follow up. While this can be a little tricky to navigate; you don’t want to come across too strongly or be annoying, it’s better to risk too much communication rather than too little communication and be forgotten about. What you’re really asking for is somebody’s time and consideration. Understanding that the people reviewing applications are busy, send a note every few days to remind them of your consciousness and desire for the position. Chances are that with this tenacity you’ll receive an email or call back. However, if you don’t receive a response after a few regular follow-ups, put a reminder in your calendar to follow up in a week. In the meantime, move on to the next opportunity.

5. Be gracious

Everyone has been turned down for a job they wanted. How you respond to this kind of rejection could determine future opportunities. The business community is smaller than it seems, no matter what industry you’re interested in working in. People get together at networking events and workshops, or they move over to a different company, and they talk. It’s not worth burning a bridge if you’re passed over for an opportunity. Maybe you’re not the right fit today, but you might be soon, and you want your name to be surfaced to the top of the pile if that time comes. So be gracious, thank the interviewer for their time, and ask to be considered for future openings. You never know where that connection might lead.

Stay tuned for more ODEM developments.

Rich Maaghul,
CEO
ODEM

At ODEM, serving students and professionals in their pursuit of success is our mission. Learn more about our on-demand education marketplace. 

Join the conversation on Telegram, LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter.

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Gaining access to the right knowledge quickly is at the core of ODEM’s partnership with New York-based 10EQS, a leading provider of business insights on demand.

10EQS, which builds custom teams to solve big client problems, is exploring with ODEM how to make discovering and engaging with independent top-tier consultants and specialized industry experts more efficient. Our solution is to tap into underused knowledge to solve specific problems, answer a set of questions about a market, or probe an industry’s best practices.

“It’s all about gaining access to knowledge and insights that are already out there somewhere in peoples’ minds,” says 10EQS Chief Executive Officer Jeff Carbeck.

Going forward, 10EQS will offer its experts the opportunity to have their experiences and credentials validated through our blockchain technology at ODEM, an education and employment marketplace. The idea is to categorize individuals’ expertise as finely as possible, allowing rapid, low-cost discovery of experts credentials as well as validation of experience and capabilities.

“Our fundamental mission is to more efficiently deploy the global brain,” says Carbeck. “It’s an opportunity to apply that knowledge and capacity against some really important problems.”

In the process of generating content, 10EQS will give experts the opportunity to verify their qualifications, experience, and knowledge in the 10EQS network based on their successful involvement in client projects.

“The purpose is to make detailed and verifiable expert knowledge directly accessible,” says Carbeck. “CV summaries on LinkedIn or Xing aren’t sufficiently specific and can’t be easily verified.”

10EQS experts whose credentials and competencies have been verified through the work they’ve actually done, can opt into receiving blockchain-based digital certificates of achievement from ODEM to showcase their specializations.

“Rather than just putting out a resume, a consultant can say, ‘I have a verified certificate of knowledge in this space,’” says Carbeck. “Over time, the certificates will increase in value as more internal checks and verification are completed.”

10EQS is also collaborating with ODEM to encourage its experts to enhance their professional qualifications by taking courses offered on the ODEM Platform.

“One of the things we’re working on with ODEM is understanding how we can characterize knowledge and how we train and certify people to help put that knowledge into the market,” says Carbeck.

When it comes down to it, ODEM’s partnership with 10EQS is about carefully cataloging verified capabilities so that qualified people with untapped knowledge capacity and interest in working on challenging client projects can be found and easily deployed.

Stay tuned for more ODEM developments.

Rich Maaghul,
CEO
ODEM

Join the conversation on Telegram, LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter.

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One of the most gratifying aspects of being CEO of ODEM is explaining how we’re using blockchain technology to improve education for students, educators, and employers.

Blockchains, or decentralized networks of digital ledgers, are at the core of our mission to make education more accessible, affordable, transferable, and verifiable.

ODEM is using blockchain technology and AI to administer relationships and transactions between users of the ODEM Platform, a global marketplace for in-person, online, and blended academic courses.

The Platform reduces costs and improves accessibility to high-quality education by connecting students and educators directly. Students and corporate buyers of education can easily research educators and their curriculum around the world. The Platform also empowers students to elicit offers from educators competing to teach specific academic subjects.

Once students register for a course on the Platform, smart contracts manage payments from beginning to the end of academic engagements.

ODEM is encouraging students to engage in bite-sized, affordable academic programs over their lifetimes, reducing the necessity of acquiring expensive, four-year university degrees.

At the same time, ODEM is working with forward-thinking educational institutions to use blockchain technology to give students greater control over their academic credentials.

Digital certificates and diplomas generated on the blockchain allow students to share their academic accomplishments with employers, recruiters, and other educational institutions. The tamper-proof certificates can instantly be verified without the time and cost of contacting a university or college’s registrar.

ODEM’s virtual credentials contain a unique tamper-proof digital identifier which corresponds with the electronic signature of the issuing institution, allowing for instant verification of authenticity.

ODEM’s technology for student-controlled credentials is based on the Ethereum blockchain, a specialized distributed ledger that compiles transaction data on a global network of thousands of computers.

The transactions are encrypted and added to previous data blocks, creating a decentralized chain of transactions. Once recorded on the ledger, a block can’t be tampered with or modified without changing all the previous blocks.

I hope you’ll agree that we’re using blockchain technology to revolutionize how students and educators plan, connect, and sign up for educational programs.

Stay tuned for more ODEM developments.

Rich Maaghul,
CEO
ODEM

Join the conversation on Telegram, LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter.

The post How ODEM is Reshaping the Education Landscape appeared first on odem.cloud.

It’s not uncommon for major U.S. colleges to take as long as four months to deliver a hardcopy diploma to a newly graduated student.

It can also take as many as six weeks and a US$150 fee to replace a diploma that’s been lost, stolen, or destroyed.

Enough, already.

At ODEM, we’re committed to using blockchain technology to make education more affordable, accessible, transferable, and verifiable.

That means deploying the same technology that makes digital currencies like Bitcoin possible to empower students to “own” their diplomas and records of academic accomplishment.

We’re working with forward-thinking institutions of higher education to unleash the power of blockchain technology to give students autonomy over their academic credentials.

Once a graduate is electronically granted access to his or her diploma on graduation day, the individual retains ownership forever. No more calls and emails to the registrar.

Blockchain technology allows virtual documents to be easily forwarded to employers or other educational institutions and instantly verified electronically without payment of additional fees to the college registrar, months of waiting, or the hassle of traditional mail.

Digital credentials contain a unique tamper-proof digital identifier which corresponds with the electronic signature of the issuing institution. The encryption system allows students to both easily access their virtual records and prove their validity.

ODEM’s technology for recipient-controlled credentials is rooted in the Ethereum blockchain, a specialized distributed ledger that compiles transaction data on a global network of thousands of computers. The transactions, or blocks, are encrypted and added to previous data blocks, creating a chain of transactions. Once recorded on the ledger, a block cannot be tampered with or modified.

Just last year, a Canadian polytechnic known as SAIT became the first post-secondary school in that country to issue blockchain-based academic certificates to a graduating class. We’re proud to say that ODEM provided the technical assistance.

Stay tuned for more ODEM updates.

Rich Maaghul,
CEO
ODEM

Join the conversation on Telegram, LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter.

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