How Distanslära closed the gap that let diplomas be faked

TL;DR: Distanslära is a Swedish distance learning school whose founder handles the daily work around the courses, including issuing a certificate once a teacher has approved a student. Certificates used to go out as PDFs through the course system. He had no full view of what was sent or how it was kept, and the diplomas could be fabricated, which put the school’s own legitimacy at risk. The certificates are now secure, which he says gives the school and its students the same confidence.

Samir Amara founded Distanslära and never handed the daily work to anybody else. He answers the questions, and he is the one who releases a certificate when a teacher signs a student off. Among the programmes is one for payroll specialists, which he describes as in high demand.

How were certificates sent before TRUE?

Through the course system, as PDF files. That is what most distance schools do, and it works right up to the moment somebody asks whether a particular certificate is real. Amara could not answer that question. He also could not see what happened to a document after it left.

What worried the founder?

Not the time. The forgery, and what a forgery would do to a school with nothing else to stand on. Amara could not see a document once it had left, and he could not stop anybody building one that looked exactly like his.

“The biggest challenge was that we did not have full control over what was sent out or how the recipient kept it. On top of that the diplomas could easily be fabricated, which created a certain uncertainty since it risked damaging our legitimacy.”

The risk he names is not that a student is inconvenienced. It is that the school’s name ends up on documents the school never issued. A distance school has no campus, no reception and no queue of people who can vouch for it. Its legitimacy travels entirely in the documents it sends. A forgeable document attacks the institution, not the person holding a copy of it.

What does the certificate do now?

It carries its own proof, which moves the burden off the school. Nobody has to write in and ask whether a certificate is genuine, because the answer travels attached to the certificate itself.

“I appreciate that it is secure, which gives both Distanslära and the students confidence. I also like that TRUE is always responsive, quick and up to date with the latest technical development.”

Samir Amara, Founder, Distanslära

Both halves of that sentence matter to a school this size. Amara is the founder, the administrator and the person who answers the questions. A supplier that responds slowly becomes his problem within a day. For what checking involves at the other end, see how to check if a certificate is real.

Why does this weigh more for distance learning?

Because everything the school does reaches the student through a screen, including the part that is supposed to prove the rest of it happened. A classroom school has a building an employer could ring. A distance school has a document. When that document is the weakest link in the chain, everything upstream of it counts for less than it should.

Where to read more

Distanslära publishes its programmes on its own site: Distanslära. For how a forgeable document becomes a checkable one, see what blockchain certificates are. Another school whose graduates needed a document that answers for itself at a distance: SIBS.

Frequently asked questions

What is Distanslära?

A Swedish distance learning school. Its founder handles the daily work around the courses, from answering questions to issuing certificates once a teacher has approved a student.

How were certificates issued before TRUE?

As PDF files sent through the school’s own course system.

What was the problem with that?

No full control over what was sent out or how the recipient kept it, and the diplomas could easily be fabricated, which risked damaging the school’s legitimacy.

What does the founder say about the certificates now?

That they are secure, which gives both Distanslära and its students confidence, and that TRUE is responsive, quick and up to date with the latest technical development.

What is new at Distanslära?

A payroll specialist programme, which the founder describes as in high demand on the market.