Digital Diploma vs. Traditional Diploma: Pros and Cons

If you’re about to start issuing diplomas but can’t decide whether to stick to the traditional route with paper diplomas or pick an elegant, digital solution — here’s a bookmark-worthy blog to read!

Below, we’ll share all the pros and cons of digital and traditional diplomas, and help you decide what makes sense for your business.

The Benefits Of A Digital Diploma

Digital diplomas are extremely convenient for all sides. They can be accessed and managed from any device with an internet connection, making it easy for recipients to retrieve their credentials without physical storage concerns. This eliminates the need for physical handling and shipping, simplifying the process for both the issuing institution and the recipient. 

Quick and effortless verification everywhere, anytime. Digital diplomas can be verified almost instantly through secure online platforms that validate their authenticity using unique digital signatures or verification codes. The rapid verification process reduces the risk of fraudulent claims and speeds up the credentialing process for employers and institutions. Digital diplomas are available for verification 24/7, and they can be verified with a mobile phone.

Digital diplomas are harder to falsify or alter — With advanced encryption, digital signatures, and blockchain technology, digital diplomas are much more secure against tampering compared to physical documents. The unique digital identifiers and secure verification systems make it significantly harder for unauthorized individuals to alter or forge credentials.

Online sharing features of digital diplomas assist in career and education. Recipients can easily share their digital diplomas through professional networking sites, social media, emails, or digital portfolios, and attract potential employers or educational institutions. 

Digital diplomas are cheaper and easier to issue, send, manage, and store. Issuing digital diplomas involves lower costs compared to printing and mailing physical copies. They are easily managed and stored electronically, which reduces administrative burden and storage space while eliminating the logistical challenges associated with physical document handling.

The Benefits Of A Traditional Diploma

Traditional, physical diplomas are a widely accepted, usual way of proving the recipient has completed specific education. Traditional diplomas are always good to go, both in technologically advanced areas and industries and countries where digital credentials aren’t yet trusted or applicable. 

Traditional diplomas are tangible, palpable representations of educational/business achievements. Framing them in the workspace exudes trust and instills pride and positive associations, whenever the diploma owner, their coworkers, or (potential) clients see them on the wall.

Finally, traditional diplomas are accessible and reliable regardless of technological constraints and don’t require any device or internet connection to be recognized and verified.

The Cons Of A Digital Diploma

However practical, convenient, and technologically advanced, digital diplomas do have some cons and may set you back in certain situations. 

These downsides of digital diplomas are important to have in mind, especially when traveling, handling the bureaucracy, or merely sharing them online.

Digital diplomas might not be as widely recognized or valued as traditional paper diplomas, potentially affecting their acceptance by certain employers or institutions.

Some institutions will require you to present a signed copy with a stamp from the issuing organizations and provide an original, physical diploma for proof. Instead of codes and IDs (or in addition to them), some institutions use watermarks, security threads, or special paper to verify the diploma’s authenticity.

Although you may not expect this to happen today, demanding a physical diploma is quite frequent, no matter how developed the country you’re in is. 

Be sure to learn the demands of schools, organizations, companies, and other institutions regarding diploma verification, and have a signed and stamped copy with you just in case.

If not secured properly (or if the offending side is persistent enough in their intention to steal data), digital diplomas are prone to unauthorized access, tampering, and forgery.

Data breaches happen when digital diplomas are stored in unsecured platforms, or when someone unauthorized gets their hands on the diploma owners’ devices (phone or laptop theft). MFA, encryption, password protection, and handling personal devices safely can prevent the data breaches for a good measure, but never entirely.

If digital diplomas are not encrypted or secured, they can be tampered with and altered with simple tools or software. For example, someone might change the name, date, or credential details to represent their qualifications falsely, or to harm the diploma recipient.

Scammers commit phishing and other types of fraud by creating fake digital diplomas that mimic the legitimate ones. Copies are sometimes hard to distinguish from the real thing, even with the verification process (especially if scammers manage to steal the diploma code/ID). They might use these fakes to deceive employers or institutions.

Access to digital diplomas depends on having a stable internet connection and technological equipment to open, verify, and use digital diplomas.

The lack of the digital diploma verification infrastructure in some institutions means your education, employment, and even getting around physically might be compromised. Third parties don’t always have the means to confirm your digital diploma is valid and legitimate, and blind trust increases the risk of fraudulent claims.

Moreover, some diploma recipients may not have access to digital assets — and the ones that do, depend on their devices’ battery power and internet connection. The lack of either in times of need can cause a huge stress.

The Cons Of A Traditional Diploma

The ol’ reliable paper diploma has its cons, too. 

Traditional diplomas are delicate physical objects: they are easy to destroy, rip, burn, get wet, or misplace. If the original is destroyed, the diploma owner has to go through a bothersome process of proving they had the diploma and requesting to issue a new one.

The diploma translation process takes time and needs to go through official translating agencies, whose services may cost the diploma owner. This makes traditional diplomas inconvenient if the owner is in a hurry or short on funds.

Finally, traditional diplomas aren’t completely tamper-resistant. If issuers don’t use special techniques to make the forgery next to impossible, falsifying physical diplomas is much easier than tampering with digital ones. Unless parties of interest don’t go through a careful background check of the diploma owner and their credentials, it’s relatively simple to defraud institutions.

The Weigh-In: What Kind Of Diploma Is Better?

Digital diplomas outweigh the traditional ones in benefits by a lot — but to be safe, we advise you to have a signed physical copy as well.

With Virtualbadge.io, you can have the best of both worlds and easily evade the cons of both variants. Digital diplomas issued with our platform are safe, tamper-proof, accessible, and require no previous training or special equipment to issue, manage, or verify.

See how feature-rich it is for free!

We’re available for a quick consultation, too — let us help you create a beautifully designed and secure solution for your digital diplomas.

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