Education 4.0 in Developing Economies: A Systematic Literature Review of Implementation Barriers and Future Research Agenda

Abstract

Education 4.0 (EDUC4) was driven by the onset of the Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR) to meet labor market requirements resulting from learning that is customized, flexible, accessible, and skills-based. As the concept of EDUC4 develops popularity in the education and innovation research domains, various challenges about its implementation have emerged, especially in developing economies. Thus, there is a need to investigate the existing barriers to EDUC4 implementation. Using the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) statement, a systematic literature review of journal articles in the Scopus database was conducted. Of the 299 journal articles generated from the initial search on Scopus, 30 met the inclusion criteria and were included in the review. The content analysis yielded 12 barriers which include cybersecurity threat, costly, skills gap of human capital, apprehensive stakeholders, lack of training resources, lack of collaboration, knowledge gap for the customization of curriculum design, insufficient available technologies, health issues, time constraint for material preparation, complexity of learning platforms, and insufficient foundation of basic education. They were then associated with seven themes for better operationalization in Higher Education Institutions (HEIs): (1) human resources, (2) infrastructure, (3) financial, (4) linkages, (5) educational management, (6) learners, and (7) health and environment. Finally, a theoretical predictive model was constructed to present the causal relationships in modeling the problems associated with implementing EDUC4. The insights generated from this work offer both theoretical and practical perspectives for stakeholders of HEIs in the implementation of EDUC4 in developing economies.

An Extended UTAUT Model to Explain Factors Affecting Online Learning System Amidst COVID-19 Pandemic: The Case of a Developing Economy

“…The outbreak of COVID-19 changed the landscape of the educational systems and has made the learning institutions shift from the traditional face-to-face to online teaching-learning modality. The changes have set unprecedented transition challenges that are more pronounced among developing economies, highlighting the internet infrastructure as one of the most daring barriers (Costan et al, 2021 ; Szopiński and Bachnik, 2022 ). For a developing country like the Philippines, the COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated the adoption of online tools that support remote-based teaching, helping institutions leapfrog into adopting tools that support twenty-first-century learning.…”

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“…These findings generate discussions on the need to improve human resources and infrastructure to support LMS in developing economies. Emerging literature identified human resources (e.g., college instructors and professors) and infrastructure (e.g., internet connectivity) as barriers to implementing technologydriven higher education and LMS usage (Costan et al, 2021, Batucan et al, 2022. Another prominent finding revealed significant variations in LMS user type, which can be attributed to the age of LMS users.…”

Η Επιμόρφωση Και Κατάρτιση Των Εκπαιδευτικών Στο Πεδίο Της 4ης Βιομηχανικής Επανάστασης

“…Το γεγονός αυτό προκάλεσε δύο σημαντικές εξελίξεις: α) την εφαρμογή της εξ αποστάσεως εκπαίδευσης μέσα από διάφορες εκπαιδευτικές πλατφόρμες και β) την αναγκαιότητα στήριξης και επιμόρφωσης του εκπαιδευτικού προσωπικού και των μαθητών για να μπορούν να ανταποκριθούν στην εξ αποστάσεως εκπαίδευση (Alakrash & Razak, 2021). Η πανδημία Covid-19 έφερε επιτακτικά στο προσκήνιο, εκτός από τα θέματα υγείας, τη νέα τεχνολογία που χρησιμοποιείται στην εξ αποστάσεως εκπαίδευση και τα προβλήματα που σχετίζονται με την μακροπρόθεσμη εφαρμογή του Educ4 (Costan et al, 2021).…”