Using Cryptocurrency to Increase Student Motivation and Agency: Thoughts from Vietnam

Abstract

This paper will argue that cryptocurrency can be used as a tool to motivate and increase the agency of students in higher education. Although just a few cryptocurrencies, or coins, dominate the headlines (bitcoin, ether, etc.), more than 10,000 different coins currently exist. Each coin targets specific problems (inter-user payments, unlocking specific services, etc.) and two key problems in Vietnamese higher education are student motivation and student agency. The argument is that by rewarding particular behaviors (good grades, attendance, etc.) with a grant of coins to each student, the coin can bring the benefits of badging but can go even further because coins, unlike badges, can be spent. One major weakness of cryptocurrencies is that they are like money but with less utility. This paper argues that this weakness can be turned into a strength by making a new coin that is targeted specifically to education. Students with better academic performance would receive more coins than other students. These coins can then be used to purchase exclusive options such as entry to watch or even meet a guest speaker or the student could buy time from the teacher to help them improve their study plan. While teachers do offer office hours, some students are hesitant to attend as they feel they do not deserve to consume the teacher’s time, because it was their parents, not the students, who paid the tuition. However, by earning the coins to buy the teacher’s time, it is anticipated that students would become more agentic and more willing to take advantage of those resources that have been available yet remain underutilized. Students without coins may be able to buy them from other students at a market price. This can provide even greater motivation for students, especially those from disadvantaged backgrounds, to perform well because their reward (the coins) can be exchanged for real world money.

Teachers Motivating Themselves by Motivating Students: A Cryptocurrency Appears

“…For the question about what would teachers offer to students in trade for the NCCTs they earned, 56% said they would give more of their own time, including outside of standard hours, and they would increase the range of topics they would be willing to discuss, as shown in Table 2. This matches well with what students reported wanting in an earlier paper [10]. One example that came up (multiple times) was that the teachers would offer their consulting services.…”

“…High levels of interest might be expected as this NCCT would give greater power to motivate students and earlier research indicates that having a greater sense of control correlates with higher job satisfaction for university lecturers [9]. However, unlike students, who get a benefit from the NCCT at no cost, teachers must put in some effort to make any system like this work and so it should be expected that fewer teachers would be interested than the 89% of students found in earlier research who were interested [10]. Since this NCCT would require, at a minimum, teachers and students to participate, the fact that a majority of both are interested is promising.…”

“…Exploratory research is used to investigate problems which are not yet well defined [21, p. 45]. Given that only one paper has been found in literature referencing the use of cryptocurrency for student motivation [10], and that was focused only on the student perspective, it is important to now explore the issue from the perspective of the teacher.…”

“…If so, how is that number verified? If NCCTs are not considered a currency, is there any reason to tie each student's national ID to their blockchain address [10]? Should the purpose of each transaction be recorded or should only the amount be included?…”

“…The idea of designing an NCCT with the specific intent to motivate students was recently introduced [10]. The proposed NCCT does not yet exist and the purpose of that study was to explore the student's perspective on such an NCCT so that it could be designed in a way to satisfy all appropriate stakeholders.…”