From Smileys to Smileycoins: Using a Cryptocurrency in Education

Authors

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.5195/ledger.2017.103

Keywords:

Education, Cryptocurrency, Rewards, Low income

Abstract

This paper describes a cryptocurrency to reward students for their studies. The currency bears the apt name Smileycoin or SMLY and is used within the tutor-web online learning platform. In order to make the SMLY attractive to students several approaches have been used, including support from companies whose services can be purchased for SMLY. The paper describes the use of the SMLY as a reward mechanism in a large undergraduate calculus course, including student adoption, student use of SMLY, coinbase use for education in low-income areas, and response to abuse.

Author Biographies

Gunnar Stefansson, University of Iceland

Gunnar Stefansson is a Professor of Statistics at the Mathematics Department of the University of Iceland. He is a statistician interested in applications, particularly within webassisted education.

Jamie Lentin

Jamie has been developing websites and associated solutions since the turn of the century.

References

Athey, S., Catalini, C., Tucker, C. “Escaping from Government and Corporate Surveillance. Evidence from the MIT Digital Currency Experiment.” (2016) https://www.ftc.gov/system/files/documents/public_comments/2016/10/00071-129190.pdf

Catalini, C., Tucker, C. “Seeding the S-Curve? The Role of Early Adopters in Diffusion” (No. w22596) National Bureau of Economic Research (2016) DOI: https://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2822729

Catalini, C., Tucker, C. “When early adopters don't adopt.” Science 357.6347 135-136 (2017) DOI: https://dx.doi.org/10.1126/science.aal4476

Gneezy, U.; Rustichini, A. “Pay Enough - Or Don't Pay at All.” CentER Discussion Paper 1998-57 Tilburg: Microeconomics. (1998) DOI: https://dx.doi.org/10.1162/003355300554917

Henry, G. T., Rubenstein, R. “Paying for grades: Impact of merit-based financial aid on educational quality.” Journal of Policy Analysis and Management 21.1 93-109 (2002) DOI: https://dx.doi.org/10.1002/pam.1042

Jonsdottir, A. H. “Development and testing of an open learning environment to enhance statistics and mathematics education.” PhD Thesis, University of Iceland. 145 (2015) ISBN 978-9935-9263-0-2 Available at https://skemman.is/handle/1946/20776?locale=en

Jonsdottir, A. H., Jakobsdottir, A., Stefansson, G. “Development and Use of an Adaptive Learning Environment to Research Online Study Behaviour.” Educational Technology & Society 18.1 132-144 ISSN: 1436-4522 (2015) https://www.jstor.org/stable/jeductechsoci.18.1.132

Lentin, J., Jonsdottir, A. H., Stern, D., Mokua, V., Stefansson, G. “A mobile web for enhancing statistics and mathematics education.” arXiv preprint (2014) https://arxiv.org/pdf/1406.5004.pdf

Leuven, E., Oosterbeek, H., Klaauw, B. “The effect of financial rewards on students' achievement: Evidence from a randomized experiment.” Journal of the European Economic Association 8.6 1243-1265 (2010) DOI: https://dx.doi.org/10.1162/jeea_a_00024

Levitt, S. D., List, J. A., Neckermann, S., Sadoff, S. “The behavioralist goes to school: Leveraging behavioral economics to improve educational performance.” National Bureau of Economic Research. Discussion Paper No. 12-038. 42 (2012) DOI: https://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2084718

Nakamoto, S. “Bitcoin: A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System.” (2008) https://bitcoin.org/bitcoin.pdf

Stefansson, G. “The tutor-web: An educational system for classroom presentation, evaluation and self-study.” Computers & Education, 43.4 315-343 (2004) DOI: https://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.compedu.2003.09.004

Stefansson, G., Sigurdardottir, A. J. “Web-assisted education: From evaluation to learning.” Journal of Instructional Psychology 38.1 47-61, ISSN: 0094-1956 (2011) https://eric.ed.gov/?id=EJ952150

Stefansson, G., Stern, D. A., Lentin, J., Jonsdottir, A. H. “Evidence-based technology to enhance mathematics education from Iceland to Kenya.” Strathmore International Mathematics Conference, SIMC2017, 9 (2017) Abstract DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.21125/inted.2017.0409

Smileycoin

Additional Files

Published

2017-12-18

How to Cite

Stefansson, G., & Lentin, J. (2017). From Smileys to Smileycoins: Using a Cryptocurrency in Education. Ledger, 2, 38–54. https://doi.org/10.5195/ledger.2017.103

Issue

Section

Research Articles