Blockchain-Based Secure Authentication for an Intelligent e-Learning Framework with Optimized Learning Objects

As education field has become online due to covid in both schools and colleges, e-learning security has become an important issue. An e-Learning framework provides a collection of online services that are helpful for the learners, resource persons and others who are involved in enhancing the management and delivery of education to all sections of people. The two most important aspects of an e-Learning system are better search of learning resources and the secure authentication between the learner and the trainer. This chapter introduces two novel methods: (i) optimization of Learning Object (LO) search based on learners’ characteristics, (ii) secure authentication of trainers and learners using visual cryptography. Storage and delivery of optimal resources that are well suited for individual learner is always a challenging task. To find the best learning objects, an enhanced attribute-based Ant Colony Optimization (ACO) algorithm that provides flexibility for the learners based on learner characteristics is proposed. A novel visual cryptography-based technique with kite-based partition technique is designed to perform file sharing and blockchain-based secure authentication and verification of valid learners is proposed for the framework. Several measures like match ratio, relevancy factor, and heuristic values show the efficiency of the proposed ACO search technique in the context of an e-Learning framework.