Sharing Learning Log while Maintaining Privacy over Blockchain: Heuristic Evaluation of BOLL

The Blockchain of Learning Logs (BOLL) system is a blockchain-based platform for connecting learners' educational records from multiple schools. The BOLL system creates a permanent record of learners' lifelong learning as immutable hashes on the blockchain, which can be analyzed to inform teaching and learning. This paper presents a usability analysis of the BOLL system using the 10 Jakob Nielsen Heuristics, with two user groups: students and teachers. The study evaluates the usability of various features, including the ability to view learner data from multiple schools, manage permissions, visualize analytics derived from connected learning logs, and provide access to learning materials used at various schools. Our findings highlight the successes of the BOLL system, including strong performance in areas such as consistency, real-world relevance, and user control. However, limitations were identified in error handling and the availability of comprehensive help and documentation. We conclude by emphasizing the need for future work to address these limitations and suggests potential avenues for improvement. Overall, this research contributes to the development of a user-friendly and privacy-conscious platform that can facilitate lifelong learning and enhance educational data sharing and analysis.