Abstract:

Higher education institutions in Ecuador continue to rely on manual and centralized procedures to validate short-course certificates, continuing education records, and competency-based recognitions. Although formal degrees can be checked through national systems, there is no agile, standardized, and secure infrastructure for verifying microcredentials, which creates exposure to paper or PDF forgery, delays employer validation, and hinders the visibility of granular skills in the labor market. This study proposes an implementation model and reference architecture for a verifiable microcredential ecosystem in Ecuadorian higher education. The model is based on Open Badges 3.0, a 1EdTech standard aligned with the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) Verifiable Credentials, and uses a regional permissioned blockchain infrastructure as a decentralized trust layer for credential integrity. Rather than storing personal student data on-chain, the architecture anchors the credential hash and revocation status, enabling immutable verification, issuer authenticity, and traceability while preserving privacy.

Methodologically, this study follows a Design Science Research (DSR) approach and develops proof of concept that simulates the complete workflow of issuance, blockchain anchoring on a test network, wallet-based storage, and third-party verification. The resulting model was evaluated against institutional requirements for privacy, interoperability, traceability, and credential lifecycle management, strengthening its applicability to higher education settings. Although not yet institutionally deployed, the proposal offers a technically grounded transition path from static PDF certificates to portable, machine-readable, and cryptographically verifiable microcredentials. It contributes to current discussions on accreditation and quality in education, Web 3.0, and lifelong learning by strengthening trust in digital certification and improving student employability and mobility through instantly verifiable evidence of achievement.

Keywords:

Blockchain, Credential Verification, Higher Education, Microcredentials, Open Badges.