Demonstrating Practical use of SSI, Wallets, and Verifiable Credentials in Education [Intermediate]

I have a background of 15 years in the educational sector, and today we are going to talk about the EduWallet project. I think we can now continue. So thank you all for joining us in this session, and let's see what we have been exploring within education in the Netherlands. I have a background of 15 years in education, and it's always been my personal goal to create an open ecosystem for the learner, which is more accessible for everyone to learn and continue on learning. And this project, well, we started it originally, like, I think, six years ago.

Because we had a challenge in the Netherlands, and the challenge is that education is changing. It's changing the way we learn, it's changing the way we teach. And also in the Netherlands, what we face is the challenges, like with labor market shortages, the energy transition. And in 2020, we, in the south of the Netherlands, have two learning, UNESCO Learning Cities and a UNESCO school called Koning-Willemijn College.

And we teamed up around the principles of UNESCO Lifelong Learning to see how it could be to create something which benefits the lifelong learner when it's open, accessible, interoperable, and using technology for that. So would it be possible to create something with wallets and verifiable credentials in this ecosystem? What we also see is that a shift of not only being at one institution for, like, three or four years in a row, but that you continue learning at multiple institutions, at an employer, at different platforms, your entire life.

And if you do that, the next challenge comes, okay, how do I then collect, manage, and share trusted digital credentials when it's fragmented in an ecosystem? The initiative we started in 22, which we called NGDIL, which already took stage shortly at EIC 23, was to demonstrate that technology could offer a solution for that. We created a demonstrator which took the standards of OpenID for VC, and we challenged two wallet providers separately to showcase this for the educational sector in the south of the Netherlands. That was our focus.

And in 24, we took it to the entire Netherlands in the project of MPulse. Well, that's, I think, where we are now, exploring the first transition to the pilots, to real world pilots. And maybe that's something where you can, where I can hand over to you.

Yes, of course. First, a little bit more about the vision of education. You already mentioned it. A wallet fits perfectly into this vision of education, of lifelong learning. Because with lifelong learning, there is a shift happening from the more institution-oriented architecture where you become a user of one institution, to a more learner-oriented architecture where the learner is in the center, and where you are in control of your data, in control of your learning paths, which you could connect to all kinds of institutions where you want to learn your lifelong.

And of course, therefore, you need something that you can carry with you, something that you can connect to all these institutions, and of course, what fits perfectly inside your pocket, that is a wallet. You made a nice movie about that, how a learner could use a wallet in the practice. Learners often face the same challenges when applying to institutions or jobs. They need to repeatedly identify themselves and prove their skills. This process is time-consuming and requires sharing the same information multiple times.

A digital wallet simplifies this by securely storing identity and learning data in one place. Learners control their own data and decide what information they share. This allows learners to easily prove their identity for access to institutions and digital learning environments. It also enables direct sharing of diplomas, certificates, and learning outcomes, for example with internship providers. Learners can use the wallet to securely approve actions like enrollment, data sharing, and signing agreements.

The wallet is not limited to education, it can also be used in the labor market and society, helping create a smoother transition from learning to working. Educational institutions have a dual role in this ecosystem. They both issue trusted data, such as diplomas, and receive information from learners' wallets. For example, a dyslexia statement to grant extra time during exams. A wallet connects education, the workplace, and society, and gives learners control over their own data. To learn more about the nPulse EduWallet project, visit npulse.nl slash en slash EduWallet.

So hopefully this animation shows you that this wallet thinking, this wallet ecosystem is perfectly suited for education, because we all know this ecosystem picture. In the center, of course, you have the wallet, and that wallet is owned by a learner, so it is learner-centric. In a Dutch educational system we use for a digital identity, we use an EduID. It's a derived digital identity from the PID. You could say they have the same personal data, some of the same personal data, and of course some extra data about education.

And in the center, and that is new in this picture, we think we need something extra. Maybe that's a nice crossover from the presentation before from the CIROS, because we think that we can't use only an app on your phone, that's not enough for some use cases where you want to share your educational data, not once, but for a period of time, with for instance your educational institution, or your teacher, we think we also need something in the cloud, some kind of digital vault that is containing your profile and your educational data. So we are doing an exploration in that area.

And of course an institution is on the left and on the right side as an issuer and a verifier. So in the Netherlands we have around 100 higher education institutions and they all, if they want to use this wallet technology, we all have to prepare them that they need to install some probably some software around issuing and verifying. And of course when you are providing credentials for lifelong learning, you also need some kind of long living register so that you can reissue credentials when you are losing your wallet, or even revoking credentials if there is some fraud in place.

And of course the lower layer is around the trust framework, it's already mentioned in other presentations, and we strongly believe in Open R&D Federation for the trust layer. My colleague Niels van Dijk, who is sitting over here, has a separate session about Open R&D Federation experimentations we are doing, not only in the Netherlands, but also on scale of edu-gain. So we are seriously investing in that area, if you have questions around that I will advise you to talk to Niels.

And of course interoperability is important for us as the student, as a learner, you have to have free choice which wallet you want to use, and we are now running pilots with several wallet providers who are already interoperable with each other, providing one QR code to scan, one QR code to share, so that the learner really can use the wallet he wants to use and there's no intermediary in between that you first have to choose which wallet you want to use. We are already seeing that it is possible. And why is it possible?

Not only to be compatible with the ARF, but also in the Netherlands, we also support the D-profile, the decentralized identity interoperable profile, which is building on the ARF and is more specific, saying on several versions of the software you need to use, because our experience is that it's a very, very tight space. If you all follow the same specifications, you are interoperable with each other. If some of these parties is using a slight different version of some solution, then it's already broken. So that's also one of the goals of this experimentation in education.

Where can you use this wallet? You already saw it in the movie, in the animation movie. There are three main use cases. It's around identity, it's around access and it's around learning outcomes. We here see the educational process. So in the orientational phase, you have to prove what you already know, what you're already able to. And in that phase, it's important that you have access to your data.

And that's also important that that vault thing is maybe you also need next to verify the credential, you need some extra portfolio stuff to prove what you and some extra data stuff to prove what you already are capable of in the educational area. The next phase is all about identity and access to get to prove who you are and to get access to education. And of course, when you have learned something, there are learning outcomes.

And it's important to say for lifelong learning, that's not only diplomas, but also small outcomes, micro-credentials, all kinds of skills or from the labor market, your work experience or some recommendations, all the things you know from LinkedIn. So wouldn't it be great if you also have that in your wallet or vice versa in your digital vault? This is not only in theory. We are now piloting Atlassian with several institutions within the IT landscape. And Jules is going to tell you more about two of these pilots.

Well, I can tell more even, but the main thing that we are doing is we are conducting pilots with institutions to do the diploma supplement. It's an addition to the diploma, which has no formal entity in the educational sector at the moment. At the same time, the PhD credential does not exist. So there's one institution which is creating the PhD as a credential to issue it to support that you can show that you did a PhD. You can do it for a course, for a total program, and then it's called a diploma and for a doctorate. And next to that, we have, I think, the most interesting one.

We do a pilot where we cross border between the digital and the physical world. This is exactly what we wanted to demonstrate here also today, but we couldn't bring the bandsaw. So that's a shame. But what we do here is that a student, which I think we have a slide for that, a student which gets the ID, so to identify the student as a learner, he needs to get a course certificate that he has followed introduction to use this machine together with those two credentials.

He can then reserve a time slot to use the machine and then physically go to the machine, use your wallet and then access the machine so that we can assure that the machine is being used in a safe environment and that the student has enough basics to not lose a finger or anything, which happens by the way.

And there is no slide for that, but maybe also one of the pilots also worth mentioning is around the OpenID Federation, where we cross border between the educational sector and the health care sector, where we use the technology of OpenID Federation to support the exchange of credentials and the trustworthiness of the credentials between those two sectors.

More technical details about that, I again want to point out to Niels, but the use case there is that you are a lifelong learner nowadays and you keep on learning and in the health care sector, of course, once every time you need to re-skill yourself in the latest developments.

So you go to the learning environment, you can show that you are someone from an employer that we acknowledge, you can go to the learner environment, you do your course, you go then, you get your credential that you can hand over to your HR department and then they can trust that you have the right, I would say that in English, the right skills to be able to work in the health care sector. Maybe this one's for you.

Yes, OK. Where do we stand? The timelines for this project are, we are now in a pilot phase. So in 2025, we first run a proof of concept. We have a nice playground, which also contains a WW wallet, interesting crossover from the former presentation. And in our playground, all the use cases you saw in that slide, you can really demonstrate. So you can download a wallet, you can register for education, you can log in with your EduID and in the end, get a badge in your wallet.

So that's, of course, a demonstrator for us, for all the institutions. We have to inform that this is coming and that they have to prepare for that. We are now in a pilot phase, so the proof of concept is more a playground environment with testing data and the pilots, of course, are already containing real life data from students, real use cases and real connections to educational systems.

So that's, of course, again, a learning environment to learn how these walls are connecting to the Dutch educational landscape. And we are now at the end of the pilot phase, in the summer, we conclude and then we prepare, of course, for the EU kickoff. The pity is that in the Netherlands already the Dutch government announced that they are not going to kick off in 2027, but in 2028. So it was another presentation, several presentations in this conference that only a quarter of the member states is ready in 2027. So we probably see the first takeoff of this ecosystem.

But as an educational sector, we are quite digitized and we know each other quite well also across border. We think we can, independently from the government, we can make our first move in our first step. So that will be our approach. And that's necessary because the first student from Italy already knocked on the gate of the University of Groningen with a wallet and a bachelor of credential. And of course, that institution said, oh, and immediately joined our pilot program. So there are two sense of urgency.

Europe is coming and several students from countries who are ready in 2027 can knock on your gate. So that's what we are using, of course. To create this sense of urgency, to start thinking about it, start testing about it.

And some, the first institutions who are now running pilots already informed, oh, we really want for several use cases, really want to go to production with wallets and data. So that is promising.

And again, a validation that educational area is really seeing the use cases and the benefits from these wallets. If you want to learn more, I already mentioned it. We have a nice website, eduwallets.nl, with a complete playground. So if you click on the button, experience yourself, there's a list, I believe, 10 or 12 use cases you can experience yourself and you can experience with the WW wallet. And we are working on the other wallet. So it will take a couple of weeks. And then we also support the other wallets we are already using within the pilots.

We have to do some rework to finish this playground that works with all the wallets we want to support. This is an open playground. So if you have a wallet, if you comply with the ARF and comply with the deep profile, we are happy to onboard you and introduce you to the Dutch education. This was our presentation. Thank you very much. Now it's on.

Yeah, thank you very much. On my side also, I think we have two minutes left, so we can take a question or two if you want. Is there already maybe a question from the audience to these guys?

Otherwise, I also can check if there are online questions or have prepared one question from my side. How is that? Any questions in the room? That seems not to be the case, so then maybe I raise my question. So you explained that you're already running a pilot and it finishes now, I think, in summer this year or something. So what is then the feedback you got there? And maybe what is the biggest surprise which you have learned from these pilots?

Yeah, actually, we're running five pilots, so with the whole educational area, so different levels of education. So that's interesting. The biggest feedback is that there is a lot of positive energy, so we don't have to push it that bullets and we've also we didn't dictate the use cases, the institutions themselves applied and handed over a use case that they wanted to test. And of course, that's a part of the energy that is that is coming through these pilots because they are testing things, they are seeing value for themselves.

For instance, diplomas and diploma supplements, especially diploma supplements. It's a small use case, but when you really think about it, how much paper is printed every year to supply every student with a diploma supplement, that alone is already a use case. It's more than 100k for every institution. So you see very specific first steps or the use case with the machines. You are responsible for the students. Now we have a paper trail. You could do this digitally and you see already the first use cases are taking off. And I think that's the biggest validation we want to receive.

The biggest thing to see that it is not pushed, but pulled by education. I agree. And that's the best feedback to have positive behind that they have. That's great feedback. Good to hear. Thank you very much, Dan.