Using Blockchain for assessing and verifying the contributions of students during team-based assignments

Free-riding during team-based assignments is a widespread phenomenon in universities throughout the world. This phenomenon tends to adversely affect group dynamics and as a result achieves to demotivate students. Moreover, lecturers are often unaware of the contributions provided by each student during team-based assignments, making the assessment process challenging. While much research has gone into developing tools for fighting free-riding in team-based assignments, available research fails to provide students and lecturers with a tangible solution for the problem. Therefore, this research has sought to find an innovative way of combating the phenomenon, by investigating the use of technology. The technology explored for this purpose was Blockchain. The reasons behind free-riding, and the appropriate features offered by Blockchain were identified. The aim of this research was to assess whether Blockchain is useful in the fight against free-riding in team-based assignments, by developing the design principles of a solution that utilizes the technology for that purpose. Through the developed design principles, it became possible to conceptualize the solution on a high-level basis. The evaluation of the design principles and the technology in general revealed that, at the current state of development, Blockchain does not provide significant added value in the fight against free-riding in team-based assignments.