The Digital Revolution of Education

Industry 4.0’s Disruption of Curriculum

The disruption caused by the integration of technologies, Industry 4.0 (Mian, Salah, Ameen, Molduddin, & Alkhalefah, 2020, p. 1), is far and wide. Cyber-physical systems occupy nearly every sector from agriculture (Liakos, Busato, Moshou, Pearson, & Bochtis, 2018) to healthcare (Matheny, Whicher, & Israni, 2019). One of the major reasons for this is because the fourth industrial revolution “(4IR) capabilities create higher top and bottom value through faster design, novel products, reduced risks, elimination of waste, and so on” (Tassel, 2019).

Early adopters, however, found that Industry 4.0 equipment retrofits and capital expenditures exceeded their means (Sanders, Elangeswaran, & Wulfsbert, 2016, p. 813). Luckily, nearly as quickly as technology is proliferating through society, those costs reduced in a similar speed industry sees computer processors prices drop – permitting the adoption and acceleration of the integration into manufacturing facilities (Industrial IoT is booming thanks to a drop in sensor prices, n.d.).

Integration of Silo Sectors

In a similar fashion as the evolution from the first to the second industrial revolution, the third and fourth have and are changing the way humans interact, purchase products, and manufacture. The “first industrial revolution marked the initiation of machine manufacturing. Subsequently, the second industrial revolution [saw] a expeditious progress in the steel, automobile, and electronic industries” – off of which developed as a subset of the first industrial revolution (Mian, Salah, Ameen, Molduddin, & Alkhalefah, 2020, p. 2). The “third industrial revolution experienced a metamorphosis into a digital world and renewable energies.

Building on the arrival into the digital world, the 4IR represents the integration or “harmonization” (Mohd Adnan, Abd Karim, Haniff Mohd Tahir, Mustafa Kamal, & Muhyiddin Yusof, 2019, p. 331) of “cutting-edge technologies, comprising the internet of things (IoT), cloud computing, virtual (and augmented) reality, simulation, three-dimensional (3D) printing, artificial intelligence (A.I.), data analytics, cybersecurity, smart factories, (or cities), [and] advanced robotics” (Mian, Salah, Ameen, Molduddin, & Alkhalefah, 2020, p. 2). This integration of once silo-based sectors has forced higher education to evolve in a variety of areas, one of which is, and is going to be, its curriculum contents.

From an industry perspective, those sectors began to integrate fairly quickly while higher education continued to adapt to the third industrial revolution and has remained, at the macro-level, satisfied with silos. Commonly, students take a set of courses based on an HEI’s organizational structure. For instance, business classes in the business department, information technology in the I.T. department, and manufacturing classes in advanced technology departments.

Even with good-intentions by department’s attempt to cross-pollenate a student’s degree, each division/department’s faculty teach from a vertical perspective leaving the student to apply the integration – the key element to their future work environment – to themselves. To match industry needs, courses need to contain content that, from the beginning, shows the integration of the technologies and purpose, use, and functionality in the real-life setting. This action requires a new blending of internal departments, faculty professional development, and a blurring of departmental lines. Surely, there is still a place for vertical training within, say, information technology for those highly skilled in such an area; however, even they will need to know how cyber-systems impact various sectors. Using information technology as an example, it is in nearly every aspect of the 4IR. The department nor the faculty can continue to operate in a silo with curriculum specific to the development of I.T. professionals.

Nine Critical Competencies

With the curriculum changes comes the skills or competencies necessary to navigate this rapidly-changing environment. In the same fashion, as noted above, employees will no longer operate in silos either. Consider the smart factory will have transitioned the worker from one that solely operates a press or machine to one that operates that machine that is connected to the machine’s manufacturer reports back to engineering for quality control, determines through A.I., what parts are necessary to keep it running, provides data to procurement for ordering, and possible management updates for operational proficiency.

Early on, industry saw the need for employees to be trained on what was considered soft skills, communication, creativity, and problem-solving skills. With further experience, these skills moved from important to critical to the success of the worker and the organization (Jang, 2015;2016, p. 284).

Those skills expanded to include a total of “nine critical competencies” (Sheninger, 2019, p. 106). Those competencies are (1) “creativity,” (2) “collaboration,” (3) “communication,” (4) “critical thinking and problem solving,” (5) “entrepreneurism,” (6) “global awareness,” (7) “technological proficiency,” (8) “digital media literacy,” and (9) “digital responsibility, citizenship, and footprints” (pp. 106-108).

These competencies require new curriculum that will enable HEIs to prepare the student for the real-time working environment each will face no matter the level of skill, education, and position.

References
Adão, T., Pádua, L., Fonseca, M., Agrellos, L., Sousa, J. J., Magalhães, L., & Peres, E. (2018). A rapid prototyping tool to produce 360° video-based immersive experiences enhanced with virtual/multimedia elements. Procedia Computer Science, 138, 441-453.

Fredman, J. (2018, May 2). Report: Institutions are failing Pell Grant recipients, policymakers must step in. Retrieved November 9, 2020, from National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators: https://www.nasfaa.org/news-item/15047/Report_Institutions_Are_Failing_Pell_Grant_Recipients_Policymakers_Must_Step_In

Holland, M. M., & DeLuca, S. (2016). Why wait years to become something? Low-income African American youth and the costly career search in for-profit trade schools. Sociology of Education, 89(4), 261-278.

Industrial IoT is booming thanks to a drop in sensor prices. (n.d.). Retrieved November 14, 2020, from Ennomotive: https://www.ennomotive.com/industrial-iot-sensor-prices/

Jang, H. (2015;2016). Identifying 21st century STEM competencies using workplace data. Journal of Science Education and Technology, 25(2), 284-301.

Klippel, A., Zhao, J., Jackson, K., La Femina, P., Stubbs, C., Wetzel, R., . . . Oprean, D. (2019). Transforming earth science education through immersive experiences: Delivering on a long held promise. Journal of Educational Computing Research, 57(7), 1745-1771.

Kowarski, I. (2018, August 30). 7 nontraditional jobs for MBA graduates. Retrieved November 10, 2020, from US News: https://www.usnews.com/education/best-graduate-schools/top-business-schools/articles/2018-08-30/7-nontraditional-jobs-for-mba-graduates

Liakos, K. G., Busato, P., Moshou, D., Pearson, S., & Bochtis, D. (2018). Machine learning in agriculture: A review. Sensors, 18(8), 2674.

Matheny, M. E., Whicher, D., & Israni, S. T. (2019). Artificial intelligence in health care: A report from the National Academy of Medicine. Journal of the American Medical Association, 323(6), 509-510.

Mian, S. H., Salah, B., Ameen, W., Molduddin, K., & Alkhalefah, H. (2020). Adapting universities for sustainability education in Industry 4.0: Channel of challenges and opportunities. Sustainability, 12(15).

Mohd Adnan, A. H., Abd Karim, R., Haniff Mohd Tahir, M., Mustafa Kamal, N. N., & Muhyiddin Yusof, A. (2019). Education 4.0 technologies, Industry 4.0 skills and the teaching of English in Malaysian tertiary education. Arab World English Journal, 10(4), 330-343.

National Center for Education Statistics. (n.d.). Integrated Postsecondary Education Data. Retrieved February 28, 2020, from Institute of Education Sciences; National Center for Education Statistics: https://nces.ed.gov

Our company. (n.d.). Retrieved November 9, 2020, from Automation Alley: https://automationalley.com/About/OurCompany.aspx

Sanders, A., Elangeswaran, C., & Wulfsbert, J. (2016). Industry 4.0 implies lean manufacturing: Research activities in Industry 4.0 function as enablers for lean manufacturing. Journal of Industrial Engineering and Management, 9(3), 811-833.

Schuldenfrei, M. (2019, April 29). Horizontal and vertical integration in Industry 4.0. Retrieved November 10, 2020, from Manufacturing Business Technology: https://www.mbtmag.com/business-intelligence/article/13251083/horizontal-and-vertical-integration-in-industry-40

Sheninger, E. (2019). Digital leadership: Changing paradigms for changing times. Thousand Oaks: Corwin.

Skiba, D. J. (2016). On the horizon: Trends, challenges, and educational technologies in higher education. Nursing Education Perspectives, 37(3), 183-185.

Tassel, L. (2019, January 16). Why strive for Industry 4.0. Retrieved November 14, 2020, from World Economic Forum: https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2019/01/why-companies-should-strive-for-industry-4-0/

Trend Generator: Student enrollment: what is the percent of students enrolled in distance education courses in postsecondary institutions in the fall? (n.d.). Retrieved November 9, 2020, from National Center for Education Statistics: https://nces.ed.gov/ipeds/TrendGenerator/app/answer/2/42

Ventura, S., Brivio, E., Riva, G., & Baños, R. M. (2019). Immersive versus non-immersive experience: Exploring the feasibility of memory assessment through 360° technology. Frontiers in Pshycology, 10(2509), 1-7.

What is Industry 4.0? (n.d.). Retrieved May 20, 2019, from Automation Alley: https://automationalley.com/About/What-is-Industry-4-0.aspx

Woods, C. S., Richard, K., Park, T., Tandberg, D., Hu, S., & Jones, T. B. (2016;2017). Academic advising, remedial courses, and legislative mandates: An exploration of academic advising in Florida community colleges with optional developmental education. Innovative Higher Education, 42(4), 289-303.

Industry 4.0’s Disruption of Pedagogy

Along with Industry 4.0’s disruption into HEIs’ curriculum, it is impacting education’s pedagogy – simply put, Industry 4.0 is requiring HEIs to evolve in both what it teaches and how. Klippel, Zhao, Jackson, La Femina, Stubbs, Wetzel, Blair, Wallgrün, Oprean (2019) went as far as to say “immersive technologies such as augmented and virtual reality [elements of Industry 4.0] are transforming education” (p. 1746). Augmented (A.R.) and virtual reality (V.R.) technologies provide “certain characteristics of immersive technologies [that] lend themselves to advancing critical teaching approaches in academic disciplines” (Klippel et al., 2019, p. 1747).

Consider how A.R. and V.R. technologies can “place learners into the real world with a specific problem that is relevant to a location [that enables] a more direct connection to key learning points that learners can understand and use to become more engaged” (Klippel et al., 2019, p. 1747). Ventura, Brivio, Riva, and Boños (2019) explained that “V.R. has shown to be an efficacious instrument in assessing cognitive functions such as attention, memory, and executive functions” – all of which are vital to increasing a student’s self-efficacy, knowledge base, and application (p. 1). Those benefits seem logical when one considers how a student could not only be told about how “something came into existence” but, through an immersive experience, watch the transformation (Klippel et al., 2019, p. 1750).

It is not surprising then to see A.R. and V.R. technologies have

“been successfully applied to several areas such as medicine, product design and manufacturing, education, tourism, cultural heritage, and human-computer interaction, in a wide range of contexts (e.g., entertainment, training rehabilitation) and goals (e.g., learning improvement, knowledge dissemination, public participation promotion, and medical patient recovery support)” (Adão, Pádua, Fonseca, Agrellos, Sousa, Magalhães, Peres, 2018, p. 442).

The integration of such technology into HEIs’ pedagogy is no simple task. This requires faculty professional development, expert instruction, and potential curriculum adjustments – all of which, in a traditional model, require committee reviews, approvals, and guidance that could take years. This time-line to formally address the technology that will benefit a learner could be improved and transformed before the traditional HEI could process the original version.

The speed in which the technology is advancing is forcing HEIs to evolve their operational processes and internal training – not to mention the cultural transition to one that functions in a constant state of change. Industry 4.0 is forcing the educators’ role to transition from one that is a “master of knowledge to that of [a] facilitator and mentor, someone who guides learners on their journey of knowledge” (Mohd Adnan, Abd Karim, Haniff Mohd Tahir, Mustafa Kamal, & Muhyiddin Yusof, 2019, p. 334).

References

Adão, T., Pádua, L., Fonseca, M., Agrellos, L., Sousa, J. J., Magalhães, L., & Peres, E. (2018). A rapid prototyping tool to produce 360° video-based immersive experiences enhanced with virtual/multimedia elements. Procedia Computer Science, 138, 441-453.

Industrial IoT is booming thanks to a drop in sensor prices. (n.d.). Retrieved November 14, 2020, from Ennomotive: https://www.ennomotive.com/industrial-iot-sensor-prices/

Jang, H. (2015;2016). Identifying 21st century STEM competencies using workplace data. Journal of Science Education and Technology, 25(2), 284-301.

Liakos, K. G., Busato, P., Moshou, D., Pearson, S., & Bochtis, D. (2018). Machine learning in agriculture: A review. Sensors, 18(8), 2674.

Our company. (n.d.). Retrieved November 9, 2020, from Automation Alley: https://automationalley.com/About/OurCompany.aspx

Sheninger, E. (2019). Digital leadership: Changing paradigms for changing times. Thousand Oaks: Corwin.

Skiba, D. J. (2016). On the horizon: Trends, challenges, and educational technologies in higher education. Nursing Education Perspectives, 37(3), 183-185.

What is Industry 4.0? (n.d.). Retrieved May 20, 2019, from Automation Alley: https://automationalley.com/About/What-is-Industry-4-0.aspx

Five Pressures Forcing HEI to Change

National Enrollment Volatility

Enrollment has a direct impact on HEIs’ operations, and national trends are far from simple. Between 2001 and 2019, national U.S. postsecondary enrollment saw highs and lows spanning a delta of 6M students (National Center for Education Statistics, n.d.). Compounding that figure was the number of HEIs that lived in that space. At the peak in 2012, there were 7,253 “postsecondary institutions in the United States that award[ed] federal student aid” (National Center for Education Statistics, n.d.). Enrollment peaked at 29M students (National Center for Education Statistics, n.d.). That averages approximately 4,100 students per HEI.

A large portion of those students attend universities that have over 10,000 students already increasing the competitive nature of higher education, something that will later be discussed in more detail (National Center for Education Statistics, n.d.). Directly related to national enrollment is the supply of HEIs. From 2009 to 2010, 279 new institutions entered the space, and from 2015 to 2016, 499 closed their doors (National Center for Education Statistics, n.d.).

National enrollment volatility is forcing HEIs to transition from its supply-side economics to a supply and demand structure. The economic theory transition supports the concepts for institutions to become, as Dr. James Sawyer, President of Macomb Community College, stated, the need to become “lean, agile, and flexible” – words not typically associated with HEIs. HEIs have begun to recruit individuals for leadership positions that are master’s in business administration versus the traditional faculty-based education (Kowarski, 2018). These leaders have the training, and often experience, in employing a number of business-based process improvement strategies that HEIs now require to operate in a manner Dr. Sawyer referenced.

Colleges and universities need to become “lean, flexible, and agile”
Dr. James Sawyer, President, Macomb Community College

Legislative Pressures

Legislative pressures continue to compound HEIs’ challenges and have forced many to pivot to an outcome-focused education versus providing the subjects and content once published by faculty’s sole intuition. A number of factors worked in tandem to bring about this result, including graduation or completion rates, student persistence, college retention rates, and student debt to gainful employment ratios. National graduation rates have hovered just above 50% for decades (National Center for Education Statistics, n.d.). Graduation rates peak as of 2013 at 60% for four-year HEIs. Two-year institutions peaked at a measly 35.7% during the same period. Those numbers alone speak to the shortcomings of student persistence and HEIs’ retention of those students.

With so many students dropping out of postsecondary education, their student-loan debt became a serious concern. Especially as “increasing numbers of low-income and minority youth [were] pursuing shorter-duration sub-baccalaureate credentials at for-profit trade and technical schools” that consistently saw higher than average drop out rates and larger student debt (Holland & DeLuca, 2016, p. 261). All of which forced legislatures to take action and create public policy that tied education to a pre-determined goal, gainful employment (Fredman, 2018). These policies threaten to pull federal funding if certain outcomes are not met or maintained, forcing HEIs to adjust and begin program creation with outcome desirables versus faculty desires.

Industry 4.0

The fourth industrial revolution commonly referred to as Industry 4.0, is a driving force to HEIs’ evolution. Industry 4.0 “can be attributed to its broadening focus on automation, decentralization, system integration, [and] cyber-physical systems” (Mian, Salah, Ameen, Molduddin, & Alkhalefah, 2020, p. 1). Automation Alley (n.d.), “a World Economic Forum Advanced Manufacturing Hub and a nonprofit Industry 4.0 knowledge center,” describes Industry 4.0 “as the convergence of digital and physical technologies disrupting the manufacturing industry and being realized today in smart factories across the globe” (What is Industry 4.0?, n.d.). They continued by stating it is the integration of sectors such as “additive manufacturing & advanced materials, artificial intelligence, big data, cloud computing, cybersecurity, modeling, simulation, visualization, immersion, robotics, and the industrial internet of things (IIoT)” (What is Industry 4.0?, n.d.).

This revolution has, and is, transforming manufacturing and transcending to impact industries that include health, business, and education. The challenge facing colleges and universities in this space is that HEIs have operated efficiently for decades within sector siloes such as business, manufacturing, and information technology. This integration forces departmental lines to blur, curriculum to be antiquated, and approach to be lacking the same environment the students will operate within.

Internet of Things (IoT)

The internet has provided both opportunities and struggles for HEIs. One of the foundational elements that permitted the formation of Industry 4.0 was all things related to the internet, commonly known as the Internet of Things (IoT). Without internet connectivity and the speed of current technology, Industry 4.0 would not exist. Massive amounts of data must be transmitted across vast distances for Industry 4.0 to operate successfully.

For HEIs, IoT brought about new possibilities in instruction formats and operation. Virtual instruction provided HEIs the opportunity to instruct with limited distance restrictions. The struggle for HEIs was that IoT also removed those same geographical boundaries HEIs once enjoyed that bolstered a new level of competition.

Heightened Level of Competition

In addition to the impact of the national enrollment volatility, IoT, horizontal, and vertical integration have forced HEIs to operate in a newly formed competitive environment. The same IoT that brought new teaching opportunities has developed a competitive element many HEIs have never faced. Colleges and universities now face the reality that a student could not only compare one institution over another that are hundreds of miles apart but not attend those institutions while conserving income by living at home.

Before the advent of IoT, geographic location gave shelter to many institutions’ pricing assuming the student would have to move to the area and consider the total cost of their education, including room and board. Even community colleges with in-district rates are forced to evaluate the sustainability of such tuition divergences when students from all over the country can compare the value of such price variations to graduation, completion, and retention rates. The community college down the road was compared to institutions all over the country.

IoT and online education have forced HEIs to evolve and put forth new strategies to increase recruitment, advising, and counseling efforts to address the new competitive environment. Woods, Richard, Park, Tandberg, Hu, and Jones (2016;2017) stated, “In an era of greater student choice, colleges diversified their advising protocols and methods of guiding students in a variety of ways” (2016;2017, p. 290). For many HEIs that relied on a steady supply of local students now have to compete for the same students. This adjustment requires a new look at the recruiting practices of HEIs and investment of capital and labor to support the efforts.

HEIs, as with any supply chain entity, are being forced to adapt to vertical and horizontal integration. Schuldenfrei (2019) explained, “Industry 4.0 has further amplified the importance of horizontal and vertical integration.” He continued by clarifying, “a horizontally integrated refers to the acquisition of companies that address the same customer base with different but complementary products or services (Schuldenfrei, 2019).” Versus vertical integration that “involves acquiring companies that bring new capabilities to the table in order to reduce costs, secure access to important supplies, and respond faster to new market opportunities” (Schuldenfrei, 2019).

Due to the significant need for continued education based upon the speed in which technology and innovation are proliferating throughout society, education and training have become a cost companies are integrating. Training providers are vertically integrating by merging while the industry is looking at education and training as a part of the supply chain to incorporate in order to lower costs – excluding the need or use of colleges and universities. Also, to address the rapidly changing environment, as noted earlier, businesses are integrating education because they see higher education’s response to Industry 4.0 as too slow. Higher education is being forced to evolve.

References

Industrial IoT is booming thanks to a drop in sensor prices. (n.d.). Retrieved November 14, 2020, from Ennomotive: https://www.ennomotive.com/industrial-iot-sensor-prices/

Jang, H. (2015;2016). Identifying 21st century STEM competencies using workplace data. Journal of Science Education and Technology, 25(2), 284-301.

Liakos, K. G., Busato, P., Moshou, D., Pearson, S., & Bochtis, D. (2018). Machine learning in agriculture: A review. Sensors, 18(8), 2674.

Our company. (n.d.). Retrieved November 9, 2020, from Automation Alley: https://automationalley.com/About/OurCompany.aspx

Sheninger, E. (2019). Digital leadership: Changing paradigms for changing times. Thousand Oaks: Corwin.

Skiba, D. J. (2016). On the horizon: Trends, challenges, and educational technologies in higher education. Nursing Education Perspectives, 37(3), 183-185.

What is Industry 4.0? (n.d.). Retrieved May 20, 2019, from Automation Alley: https://automationalley.com/About/What-is-Industry-4-0.aspx