A BLOCKCHAIN-BASED EDUCATIONAL RECORD REPOSITORY

The Blockchain technology was initially adopted to implement various cryptocurrencies. Currently, Blockchain is foreseen as a general purpose technology with a huge potential in many areas. Blockchain-based applications have inherent characteristics like authenticity, immutability and consensus. Beyond that, records stored on Blockchain ledger can be accessed any time and from any location. Blockchain has a great potential for managing and maintaining educational records. This paper presents a Blockchain-based Educational Record Repository (BcER²) that manages and distributes educational assets for academic and industry professionals. The BcER² system allows educational records like e-diplomas and e-certificates to be securely and seamless transferred, shared and distributed by parties. The Blockchain technology was initially adopted to implement various cryptocurrencies. Currently, Blockchain is foreseen as a general purpose technology with a huge potential in many areas. Blockchain-based applications have inherent characteristics like authenticity, immutability and consensus. Beyond that, records stored on Blockchain ledger can be accessed any time and from any location. Blockchain has a great potential for managing and maintaining educational records. This paper presents a Blockchain-based Educational Record Repository (BcER²) that manages and distributes educational assets for academic and industry professionals. The BcER² system allows educational records like e-diplomas and e-certificates to be securely and seamless transferred, shared and distributed by partie

An integrated pedagogical approach for distance learning courses: curriculum, ICT and management

Distance learning courses need intensive planning that, in turn, requires the integration of knowledge and expertise in different areas and levels such as curriculum, ICTs and course management. This paper presents an integrated approach for distance learning course planning that derives from pedagogical research the basic directives to integrate the process variables such as curriculum, ICT options and management. It is argued that distance learning projects always have some research activity involved, since the operation model construction always requires the identification of course characteristics and specificities in order to face the challenges imposed by this teaching method and take advantage of ICT technologies in a specific socioeconomical context. In practical terms, course implementation is focused on pedagogical-driven decisions based on a flexible curriculum model suitable for different implementation scenarios and course characteristics. The integrated approach has been used in various high capillary courses (humanities, mathematics, others) with limited ICT resourcesEducation for the 21 st century - impact of ICT and Digital Resources ConferenceRed de Universidades con Carreras en Informática (RedUNCI

The "R" Approach for Modeling a Reconfiguration Problem in Smart Grid Networks

Ensure higher levels of continuity and reliability for the electricity supply service are some of the requirements of consumers and electric power providers in the Smart Grid (SG) context. Reconfiguration of distribution networks aims to support the decision support, planning and/or real-time control of the operation of the electricity network. The goal of this paper is to propose a modelling approach for the reconfiguration problem based on R in order to better support the decision making process. Beyond that, R modelling of electricity networks may additionally support scalability evaluation, allows flexible reconfiguration analysis and potentially improves the response time when handling issues of network reconfiguration using graph theory