Business Engineering 4.0: The Transformation of a University Course in Response to Industry 4.0, Sustainable Development Goals, & Covid-19 in South Africa

Abstract

The rising waves of Industry 4.0, Sustainable Development Goals and COVID-19 have resulted in repercussions that have challenged the status quo. In preparation, Action Design Research (ADR) was used in Engineering Education as an adaptive mechanism. This research paper follows a 5-year development journey of a Business Engineering course at a South African university. The paper discusses the adaptations and refinements in response to the waves above and how they were integrated in the content, presentation and assessments of the course. Furthermore, this paper extracts generalizable findings for Engineering Education and reflects on the design of the next cycle of the course in anticipation of further waves.